The Little Girl in the Woods
by forensicsfan
Summary: It's been a long time since Booth and Brennan have had to go undercover.  Will this case be the catalyst that finally brings them together?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but like all of you, I enjoy taking them to places that so far the show hasn't.

**Author's Note:** Thanks to GreyIsTheCatsPajamas for her input on my midnight ramblings, otherwise known as my writing. I hope to provide regular updates, however, with that said, working with scientists and engineers all day can sometimes put the writing Mojo to sleep. But since today is my birthday (I won't say which one except that I'm old enough to know better and young enough to have fun anyway), I thought I'd share this first chapter with you to celebrate.

* * *

It had been seven weeks since eight-year old Emma Woods had seemingly vanished without a trace from a school science fair in a small suburban town outside of Seattle. Search teams had combed the heavily wooded area near the school for days afterwards and still they hadn't found so much as a shoelace. The case had garnered national headlines, but so far no trace of red-headed Emma had been found. Understandably, people in the community were watching their own children more closely, walking then to their classrooms instead of just dropping them off, and people were wondering how a child as vivacious as Emma had disappeared at school and no one had even noticed.

The last person who had seen her before she'd disappeared was her stepmother. Katie Woods had reportedly taken Emma to school that day just like she did most days. Photographs that she'd taken of Emma at the science fair showed the smiling girl wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with 'DNA is my life' standing next to her double helix replica. The pictures had been flashed all over the news and it supported Katie's account that she had at least stayed long enough to help carry in Emma's science project and snap a few photos. It was only when Emma didn't arrive home on the bus later that day like she did without fail that she'd been reported missing by Katie.

The community had rallied behind the Woods family, offering sympathy and support, but as the weeks had gone by, Katie Woods' story seemed to shift and change and while the authorities had yet to even call her a person of interest, shocking details had begun to emerge that cast doubt on the innocence of Emma Woods' stepmother.

* * *

Special Agent Seeley Booth wasn't the sort of man that anyone would call a coward. If you asked nearly any suspect that had experienced the misfortune of sitting across an interrogation room table from him, the man was downright intimidating, and that was with a simple quirk of his eyebrow before he'd even said a word. He was charming and good looking - plenty of women had told him so - he was very popular with the ladies. Despite all his bravado and charm, at the moment, he felt more like a bumbling schmuck as he approached his partner's office and he was nervous. Seeley Booth did not get nervous - except apparently right now.

Before he'd left for Afghanistan, things were tense between he and Bones - he was in love with her and she had rejected him. Nothing like unrequited love to make things uncomfortable. He thought that when he brought Hannah back with him and showed Bones that he'd really moved on that things would get better. They didn't. He apparently hadn't moved on as far as he thought he had and the promising relationship that had started in a battle zone ended in a whimper.

Things between them were finally getting back to some sense of normalcy, but he wasn't sure if that was because things were actually normal or if it was because of his recent break up with Hannah. Either way, there seemed to be far less uncomfortable tension between them, well at least there would be until he told her why he was there.

"Bones." Booth tapped softly on the door to his partner's office and then stepped inside as she glanced up.

"Hey, Booth." Dr. Temperance Brennan saved the file she'd been working on and closed her laptop - glancing over at him and smiling. "Do we have a case?" It was completely irrational, but she found that she had a fluttering sensation in her abdominal region at the sight of him standing in the doorway to her office with that charm smile of his that seemed to start at the corners of his mouth as they tugged upwards and going all the way to his eyes and ending with a sparkle. If it were possible to send sparkles to your eyes that is. Yes, it was completely irrational.

"Yeah, we do." He eased himself into her office and gave her one of those looks that made it obvious that this wasn't just a jaunt across town for the afternoon. "You're going to want to pack a bag, we've got to fly to Seattle." As for him, he'd already stopped by his place and packed a bag so they could catch the first non-stop flight out, which left in a few hours.

"What's in Seattle?" Her face pinched together as she considered that this meant she was probably going to have to ship remains across the country if they didn't wrap things up rather quickly. She had full confidence in the team at the Jeffersonian, but she preferred to be the one who had control of the remains until she was satisfied that she'd discovered as much about the bones as there was to be discovered.

"Emma Woods." He knew that even she was familiar with the case. They'd talked about it a few times as bits and pieces of information came through the media - he couldn't help but think about what he'd do if something happened to Parker.

"They found remains?" It wasn't really a question, but a foregone conclusion. Statistically it hadn't looked promising after Emma had been missing for more than forty-eight hours, so it didn't surprise Brennan, but it did disappoint her that there hadn't been a happier ending to a little girl who loved science.

"No, they haven't." Booth let out a breath he didn't realize that he'd been holding and offered her a smile that he hoped was warm and disarming without being overly charming.

"My expertise is forensic anthropology, if they haven't found remains, I'm not sure why we're flying to Seattle." She hadn't traveled with Booth for an investigation since before she'd left for Maluku and for some reason she was feeling a bit unsettled by it. She was glad she was sitting down.

"Hacker made the request himself." Not that this was going to be enough for her, but it bought him a few seconds as he smoothed down his tie and settled himself in the chair just across from her desk. "The case has sort of hit a dead end and they want us to go undercover and work our magic." He flashed her another smile.

"We don't perform magic tricks, we solve crimes." Brennan was perfectly serious until realized that he was just using a figure of speech.

He picked up that she'd caught on and continued. "Hey, we're the best crime fighting team there is, to everyone else what we do _is_ magic."

"Technically, we're the best crime _solving_ team." She reasoned that if they had to fly to Seattle, she ought to pack up a few things and make a couple of phone calls. She assumed that Booth was expecting that they were leaving as soon as possible. "What are we going undercover as? Unless there is suspicion that Emma has run off to join the circus, I would expect that we aren't going as Buck and Wanda."

He shook his head. "Nope, definitely not Buck and Wanda. The stepmother belonged to a yard share group that promoted organic gardening. They want us to figure out a way to join the group and see if we can get a little inside information that might lead us to Emma."

"I've read about those, a yard share is a great opportunity for people who don't own any land to grow their own food. Organic food really is better for you." She made a slight gesture that immediately brought to mind another conversation about the effects of not eating organic food.

"Hey, we are not going _there_ right now, okay." He glanced down briefly, swallowed hard, smoothed out his tie again and then, satisfied she wasn't going to bring up his special agent, at least in conversation, he got back to talking about the case. "You would be able to tell if a body had been buried in soil, there would be indicators."

"Adipocere." She was beginning to see exactly why they were going undercover. "If a body has been buried in soil, there would be adipocere."

"Right, so that's why Hacker requested that you and I do this." If anyone could find the truth, find any trace of Emma, he knew that he and Bones could. He only hoped that they found her alive and not underneath someone neat little rows of lettuce.

"So what's our cover?" Brennan had enjoyed undercover operations they'd done in the past, and so far they had been very successful. Despite her slightly unsettled feeling of nervousness, she was also excited that perhaps this would help them get back to the Booth and Brennan they used to be.

Booth's grin widened and he leaned forward, showing a measure of excitement for the first time since he'd walked in the doors of the Jeffersonian. "I'm Andy. You're Kathy."


	2. Chapter 2

Brennan looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're not Andy, and I'm not Kathy. Those are the characters in my books. You're Booth and I'm Brennan." They'd been over this before, and she was never going to admit that it was probably true.

Booth shook his head at the irony of it all. "Our covers, Bones. I didn't pick them, Hacker did." Oh, and he had never wanted to pop someone right in the nose as much as he had when his boss had given him the fake IDs they'd need for the case. Andrew Hacker looked far too smug about the whole thing as if he was giving Booth a big shove towards his own personal nightmare and didn't even realize it. Not that he would ever describe Bones as a nightmare, but loving her and knowing that she didn't love him back and being around her everyday certainly fit the description.

"Oh." She blinked at him, her eyes a bit wide as she took in that little tidbit of information and then quickly glanced down. "Well I certainly can't go as a forensic anthropologist and you can't be an FBI agent - that would be a little obvious."

Booth chuckled at how literal she was being and then continued. "We're Andrew and Kathleen Graham. I made a small fortune during the dot com boom and now I'm in consulting. You're an archeology professor on sabbatical with an interest in organic gardening." He handed her a copy of the bio that they'd been provided. "We're happily married. I have a son from a previous relationship who lives with his mother, but we don't have any children of our own."

"Do we want any?" She didn't look up as she quickly read through the bio. If she was going to get her character down, she was going to know the sorts of details that average women would be asking about. She looked at Booth expectantly, a nervous feeling swirling in her stomach.

He blinked at her several times before he stammered out an answer. "I, uh, do you?" It was up to them to fill in the blanks in this cover relationship, but they needed to have the same story, most of which he thought they could discuss on the plane.

She glanced up at him. "Well, I would presume that a happily married archaeology professor who is on sabbatical who hasn't gone out on a dig and has an alpha male for a husband would be taking advantage of the time off to try and conceive a progeny." She couldn't think of any other logical reason that a brilliant educator would attend to something as leisurely as gardening otherwise.

Booth nearly choked, but quickly recovered. "Okay, so we're happily married and anxious to add to our family." She was going to kill him before this case was over, he just knew it. "We should get going." The sooner they solved this case the sooner he was going to be able to work at moving on again.

"Oh, of course." She smiled as she packed up her laptop and then stopped abruptly and looked at Booth with a slightly perplexed expression on her face. "We don't have wedding pictures. What if someone wants to see them?" The way Angela had recounted over and over that her only regret in marrying Hodgins in a jail cell was the fact that there weren't any pictures to share with anyone. So presumably there was some sort of female bonding ritual that occurred while sharing them.

He paused for only a fraction of a second. "Those would be at our 'other' house, the one you're on sabbatical from." That was some quick thinking on his feet, but they were definitely going to have to fill in the holes of their cover story on their flight, which they were going to have to hurry to catch since they still had to stop and let her pack.

"Or we could have just eloped." What was the point of a big ceremony in the first place? She put her laptop into her bag and grabbed her purse. She was already considering what to pack so that when they reached her apartment it would only take her a few moments to gather her things for their flight to Seattle.

"Or that." Booth shook his head and let out a chuckle. "We can talk about it on the way." As he watched Bones walk out in front of him he scrunched his eyes closed for a moment - he did not need to start this whole case off by staring at her ass. Hacker was going to pay for making them do this, Booth just wasn't sure how yet.

* * *

The flight to Seattle had been fairly uneventful. Booth had managed to use his charm smile to get them upgraded to first class, or maybe it was the way Brennan had waved her Platinum Level Frequent Flyer Card. In either case, they had comfortably relaxed in all that first class had to offer instead of being packed at tight as commuters on a Tokyo bullet train back in coach.

According to the pilot as they landed, Seattle was slightly overcast with a forecast for a little rain while most of the rest of the country was locked in a late summer heat wave. As they made their way to baggage claim, Booth glanced over at the woman who was supposed to pose as his wife for hopefully no more than a week or two. He wasn't sure he could handle it any longer than that, not without having a mental breakdown and telling her that he was still in love with her. Better to focus on the case and figure out what had happened to Emma Woods.

Brennan was all business, staking out a spot near the luggage carousel and quickly plucking their bags as they came around. She noted Booth's alpha male frown and it only made her smile. "It's a good thing that neither one of us has a black bag." Anyone who traveled regularly knew that a bag of any variation other than black was going to be much easier to spot.

"I could have gotten those." He really did like her spitfire independence and it made his lips flicker into a smirk.

"I'm more than capable of carrying my own bags." Her eyes held a little bit of a challenge in them, but the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile gave her away.

"I'm sure you can, but as your loving husband, I like to carry your bags." As much as he enjoyed the return to their familiar banter, they needed to get used to the idea that they were undercover and once they met with local Seattle field agent in charge of the case and found out where they were going to be staying, they weren't going to have the luxury of letting themselves slip into their real identities out in public. He waggled his fingers at her as a reminder of the FBI issued rings they had slid on before they'd boarded the plane in DC.

"They have wheels." She let out a soft chuckle and slung one of her bags over her shoulder and began to pull, taking a moment to glance over her shoulder at him. "Are you coming?"

* * *

Special Agent Walter Lewis had a serious look on his face as he showed Booth and Brennan into the conference room which overlooked Elliot Bay where ferries were slipping out across Puget Sound. There was a thick stack of files sitting in the middle of the table. "I know this isn't the type of work you usually do, but you both come highly recommended and we really need to find a way inside the neighborhood and this yard sharing group that Katie Woods is a part of without arousing too much suspicion."

"Is the husband aware that we're here?" Booth knew that Eric Woods had file for divorce and had also gotten a protective order issued against his soon to be ex-wife after it had been alleged that she'd put out a hit on him some months before.

"No, the fewer people that know who you are and why you're really here the better. As far as he's going to know, you're a couple who are looking for a change of scenery while you have a sabbatical." Agent Lewis glanced between the pair as they all settled themselves at the table.

"So you suspect that the stepmother Katie Woods had something to do with Emma's disappearance, but you don't have enough evidence to get a warrant." Brennan cut right to the chase.

"That's right. We have a lot of circumstantial evidence, coupled with her behavior that doesn't track with what a typical concerned parent would show, and she's got a couple of friends that are running around cloak and dagger like and we're just not sure we can tie it all together without putting Emma in danger, that is if she's still alive." Agent Lewis looked tired. Clearly he'd spent the better part of the last seven weeks chasing down every lead that had come his way to try and find Emma.

"What do you mean, cloak and dagger?" Booth's arms were crossed over his chest as he tilted back in the conference room chair to see what his colleague had to say.

"One of them can't account for where she was for several hours the day Emma disappeared. Another one went and bought disposable cell phones under an assumed name for the three of them to keep in touch. And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Agent Lewis slid a file folder across the table to them. "I'll make sure you get electronic copies of these, I'm sure you understand why we can't give you a hard copy."

"No problem." Booth knew that if files like that were strewn around the house that he and Bones were going to share that it would be that much easier to blow their cover.

"Obviously, the chances of finding Emma alive are remote." Agent Lewis was a realist. He'd been an agent long enough to know that the first forty-eight hours were critical in finding a missing child. The more time that had gone by and the more that Katie Woods kept changing her story, the more circuitous this investigation had gotten.

"Are you certain that we'll be able to integrate ourselves adequately into their culture to ensure that enough information is ascertained to solve the case?" Brennan was starting to doubt her ability to connect with these women in a casual enough way and gain their trust in the process.

"Something about this community is that they make sure to go out of their way to welcome new folks. Sterling is a small enough town that you won't have to go to them, they'll come to you. And the fact that you're posing as a professor on sabbatical is going to be a bit of a curiosity to them." Agent Lewis was confident that the team sitting across the table from him was going to do just fine.

"So when do we see our new home?" Booth glanced over at Bones with a smile and a little bit of trepidation at what they were about to embark upon.

She smiled back at him and felt that fluttering sensation that seemed to be happening more and more frequently. Her eyes locked with his for a long moment and she realized that it was going to be very difficult for him to not figure out that she had come to a huge realization about him when she had been in Maluku.

"Well we've got a team there now posing as movers. As soon as the motor pool gets your car set up, we'll get you on your way out there." Agent Lewis had to restrain his smile, the way these two were looking at each other, either they were putting on one hell of an act or they were in love and just didn't know it yet.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Just for clarification, there is no such town at Sterling, Washington, however, for the purposes of this story, the town is really a blend of several different towns that represent typical small town America and just happens to be set right her in my part of the country.

* * *

"I could have driven. I _am_ a very good driver you know." It was an argument that Brennan had seldom won, but as she sat in the passenger seat of the all wheel drive Subaru Outback with the directions to the house they would be sharing in Sterling, she was certain that they would have been there by now if she _had_ been driving. They had finally gotten through the Seattle traffic, traveled across one of the two floating bridges that spanned Lake Washington and then threaded through the suburban landscape, passing by the sprawling Microsoft campus and dozens of office parks, before dipping through the last vestiges of mega mansions and luxury housing developments of the well monied Eastside. It seemed that with a whisper they slipped over a hill and dropped into a more timeless looking rural landscape and a ribbon of a road that beckoned them towards the small town of Sterling.

"I'm trying to get the lay of the land." That was only partly true, he'd circled the town twice now and still hadn't managed to find the turn onto the street where the Craftsman era house supposedly sat on its acre lot waiting for them. One more trip around and he was sure that he'd find it, or he'd stop at the gas station they'd just passed. And while Bones may have found the place by now if she'd been driving, this way he had something to do with his hands while he was sitting next to her. He was convinced he was going to be going on a lot of early morning runs while they were here just to work off some of the frustration he'd been feeling since they'd boarded the flight at Dulles.

"Oh, look, it's right up there." She pointed at a sign that had been obscured by an elm tree that had probably been there before many of the houses on the street had been built. "No wonder we couldn't find it." She only hoped that the house itself was easier to find now that they'd found the right street. She glanced over at him and smiled.

He turned the SUV down the tree lined street and easily found the house - the moving van parked right out front was a dead giveaway. He glanced over at Bones. "You know, we're going to have to get used to calling each other Andy and Kathy." It was ironic really, not only did they have to go by the names of the characters in her books, but by the names of the people they used to date before they'd gone off to their own parts of the world. Weird didn't even begin to describe it and he only hoped that he didn't slip and call her Bones.

"I know." She glanced down at the simple wedding band that she'd slipped on her finger when they'd gotten into the SUV before they'd left the FBI field office in Seattle. It was just one more reminder of how difficult this was going to be to try and compartmentalize her real feelings while she had to act like she was pretending to be in love with him. At some point, reality was bound to get mixed up in all of this and she was afraid that he'd already moved on and gotten over her. She wasn't sure she could handle having her heart crushed, especially after she'd crushed his so many months before.

"So do you prefer Honey, or Baby?" He knew he was baiting her, it was bad enough when he'd first started calling her Bones. He glanced over with a smirk as he pulled into the driveway expecting some kind of rise out of her. He did his best to keep his amusement in check and instead, offered up one of his patent pending charm smiles.

"Neither." She leveled a gaze at him that was completely serious until you got to her eyes. There was a twinkle there that said she was up for anything and was fully prepared to jump into this role with both feet. He could be so infuriating and so attractive all at once, but she was not going to answer to some endearment that he didn't even mean just for the sake of putting on an act.

"Well then, _Sweetie_, let's go look at our new home." He figured if Angela could get by with it maybe he could too, or judging by the new look on her face, maybe not. He turned off the ignition and unfastened his seatbelt and then glanced over and winked at her.

"Don't push it." She arched a brow at him and opened the door before stepping out into their new reality where the moving crew was already in full swing, carefully carrying boxes and furniture into the house as if they were really moving in to settle down for a while. The house was a classic Craftsman, built somewhere in the late twenties and had been kept in immaculate condition. It had an inviting porch, complete with a swing and peaking out from the backyard was a large garden and a gazebo watching over it.

As much as it looked like a nice new couple was moving into the neighborhood, no one but said couple were aware that the moving crew was really a group of FBI agents and the boxes were more for show than anything else. The Bureau had provided the furnishing for the house and the boxes that held things that most people who were moving into a new place would need to unpack. Hopefully the neighbors would fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

Booth stood there for a few moments and took it all in, getting a feel for then neighborhood as his eyes flicked from one end of the block to the other. As he stood there, he felt a hand slip into his and his heart nearly stopped before he forced a smile on his face as he looked over at his partner and gave her hand a squeeze. "I hope you like it, Kat." Somehow he just couldn't bring himself to call her Kathy.

She followed his lead and squeezed his hand in return, her smile reflecting his. "Well, _Drew_, I believe I like it." There was no way she could call Booth Andrew or Andy, especially after she'd briefly dated Andrew Hacker. He was Booth and anything else didn't sound right, especially while she was holding his hand and looking in his eyes, but for now, she could call him Drew.

"What do you say we go inside and make sure these guys haven't broken your mother's china?" He winked and didn't let go of her hand as they made their way across the yard and up the three steps to the front porch.

They stopped at the open door to let some of the FBI movers pass through and with a far more bravado that she felt, Brennan looked at Booth in challenge. "Aren't you supposed to carry me across the threshold or something?"

Booth nearly swallowed his tongue. She was _definitely_ going to kill him, and at this rate it would be before the day was out. A sly grin spread across his face. "Of course, what was _I_ thinking?" Before he could change his mind, he swiftly hefted her over his shoulder, smacked her on the ass and walked through the door. "C'mon, woman, let's see this new house of ours."


	4. Chapter 4

"There's only one bedroom." Booth didn't want to look panicked in front of one of the agents that had formed the moving crew, but he was starting feel like his tie was a little too tight and he was only wearing a vintage Zeplin t-shirt and a pair of jeans. The bedroom was nice, beautiful in fact, right down to the one king sized bed that seemed extra, extra small just then.

"Deputy Director Hacker said to make it look believable. You're supposed to be nearly newlyweds. Besides, it's not like there's a whole lot of room left in the other rooms for another bed." Agent Silas Green wore a pronounced smirk on his face as he regarded his colleague from the other coast. Why Agent Booth would complain about sharing a bed with someone as attractive as Dr. Brennan he wasn't really sure. Rumors about these two were almost legendary.

"Surely a futon or a pullout couch could have been placed in one of the other rooms." Brennan had been impressed with the state of the art set up of computer equipment to aid them in their investigation in one room and the archeology library with an abundance of reference materials in the other, but that was before she realized that there was no room in either of the extra bedrooms to actually put a bed.

"Hey don't kill the messenger." Agent Green shrugged his shoulders and inwardly rolled his eyes. "I didn't pick the furniture out, I just delivered it." He was an FBI agent for goodness sake, not a fricking interior decorator. If these two were unhappy with the accommodations they could take it up with the big man back in DC himself.

"Booth can't sleep on the couch, he has a bad back." It was a perfectly logical argument that perhaps would compel the other agent to immediately procure an extra bed from somewhere.

"Well I'll leave you two to figure out the details then." Agent Green shook his head and let out a chuckle, what he wouldn't pay to be a fly on the wall right around bedtime, but really he had better things to do, like tuck in his son and climb into his own bed with his own wife.

"She's a blanket hog." Booth called out while Agent Green made his way back towards the front door with a clipboard in hand so that if anyone saw him they'd think he was just getting the paperwork squared away.

"Enjoy your new house." Agent Green waved and then shut the door behind him.

As the silence settled around them, Brennan looked over at her partner with a somewhat annoyed expression on her face. "I am _not_ a blanket hog." He'd never mentioned it before when they were sharing the RV as Buck and Wanda Moosejaw. And _that_ had been a rather tiny little bed too.

Booth felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards into a smile as he turned and then leaned towards her with a twinkle in his eye. "Yes, you do. And you know what else? You snore too." Now that ignited a little fire in her eyes and for some reason, it just egged him on. "Cute little snores too."

"I do _not_ snore." She couldn't be sure she didn't, but she wasn't going to admit to him that he might be right. There was no quantifiable evidence other than his word, which at the moment was completely suspect. Besides, he could be a world class snorer, she'd heard it herself when he'd fallen asleep on the couch in her office, although that might have been attributed to the angle of his neck at the time.

"Yes, you do, Bones." He let out a chuckle and then almost smacked himself for slipping up. He silently sent a prayer of thanks up that they had been the only ones in the room.

She talked in a hushed whisper. "I'm Kat, you're Drew. We need to keep our covers."

He wondered why she was whispering. "I know, but Bones is a good nickname for an archeologist too." His charm smile was at full wattage and he had to mentally take a step back before he got completely carried away and leaned in and kissed her because he finally realized just how close they were standing to each other.

She pursed her lips a little as she considered that he had a good point. "Well I suppose that's true. In the US archeology is considered a branch of anthropology, but in Europe it's considered it's own discipline." She smiled at him. Yes, she could do this. This was the perfect cover for her, although given the way her heart was starting to beat wildly she was either experiencing an inordinate amount of stress or Booth's proximity was causing her to have involuntary biological reactions.

"See, you can still be all squinty, just the way you like it." And the way he liked it too. Okay, he apparently needed to take a really big step back and put a box or something between them. He grabbed the nearest box, flipped it open, and pulled out the first thing his hand landed on. "Oh, look, there's a thingamabob." He had no idea what in the hell he had in his hand and he squinted at it to see if it would make more sense.

Brennan laughed. "That's an Empiturian phallic symbol, well a replica anyway. It was used as a fertility totem." She was suddenly curious as to what else was in the box and she took a step forward.

Booth dropped it like a hot potato and took a step back. "Whoa, what do you say we go hit hit the farmer's market Agent Green told us about and get some food in this place? There's a barbecue out back that I'm dying to try out, so we might want to get some meat at the grocery store too." Food was good, he definitely could use some food and some distraction from the woman he was still standing way too close to. And it would also give them an opportunity to meet some of the locals and see if they could figure out a way to get close to Katie Woods and some of her friends who they'd learned were regulars at the farmer's market.

"We could case out the suspects too." Brennan offered a smile in agreement.

"It's scope out the suspects, Bones." His hand seemed to automatically gravitate to the small of her back as they made their way back out to the living room where he plucked they car keys off of the coffee table as she picked up her purse.

They hadn't even gotten all the way out the door when a smiling woman who was probably in her early sixties sauntered puposefully up the walk towards them with a casserole dish in hand. "Hi, I'm Paige Templeton. I live next door and I couldn't help but notice you moving in." Her smile was warm and welcoming.

Booth's eyes zoomed right in on what appeared to be an enormous dish of macaroni and cheese. "I'm Drew Graham, and this is my wife, Kat. We were just on our way out to check out the farmer's market and the grocery store."

Brennan joined right in with a pleased smile. "I teach archeology at a college in Virginia, but I'm on sabbatical because we wanted to learn about organic gardening while we attempt to conceive a progeny." She barely registered the other woman's quick raising of her eyebrows.

"Always the scientist this one." Booth slung his arm around Bones' shoulders and pulled her into what he hoped looked like an affectionate side hug. It was way too early to have their cover blown.

Paige had a knowing look on her face and leaned in, whispering conspiratorially as she came to a stop on the porch next to them. "Well apparently I _was_ right that you could use a meal after all of your moving. My mac and cheese is legendary in these parts for helping couples like you get in the mood so you can have plenty of babies." She looked very amused.

"How can that possibly be true?" Brennan looked skeptical. She glanced over at Booth to see if he was buying into this woman's claim.

Paige interjected with a chuckle. "Well it worked for me and my husband Frank. We had six kids and every one of them we blamed on the mac and cheese." She handed the casserole to Booth and then looked over at Brennan. "Well it was very nice meeting you both. There's a little card with the recipe and heating instructions and my phone number is on the back if you want to come over to get acquainted over coffee."

"We'll definitely take you up on the offer." Booth smiled. What he'd heard about this little town was true, the people just seemed to come to you.

"Yes, we love coffee." Brennan agreed eagerly.

"I'll expect you soon then." Paige gave a little wave and headed back down the steps to the walk, stopping momentarily at the bottom of the steps to say one more thing with a wink over her shoulder. "And enjoy the mac and cheese too."


	5. Chapter 5

The farmer's market was teeming with people and Brennan threaded her arm through Booth's and offered him a smile as they walked towards the crowd. Booth felt his heart beating faster as they made their way through the crowd slowly, keeping their eyes open for the booth that the yard share group reportedly hosted. They did their best to keep their cover, and perhaps Brennan was keeping it a little too well.

"Oh, honey, look at these." She pulled him along as she made her way to the first organic vegetable stand they happened upon. She reasoned that they needed food in the house anyway and they might as well pick it up at the farmer's market.

He leaned in a whispered loudly. "Uh, what exactly am I supposed to be looking at." Booth quirked an eyebrow at her, there was at least a dozen different kinds of vegetables in this booth alone. His version of vegetables was usually straight from a can or the frozen food section at the grocery store. If he bought them fresh, they usually wound up in the bottom of his trash can a week or so later.

"Organic produce." She smirked with a devilish glint in her eye. "They're good for you." She glanced south of his belt buckle briefly before looking up at his eyes and continuing. "We certainly want to keep things in good working order if we're going to procreate."

He felt his throat constrict and his voice started out with a squeak before it lowered to a more conspiratorial whisper. "I think those vegetables over there look fresher, Baby." He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away from the poor wide-eyed high school aged girl who was working that particular stand.

"Those vegetables looked just fine to me, _Drew_, but if you insist." Brennan found it somewhat amusing that Booth's cover identity seemed to be just as uptight about public discussions about sex as the real man.

"_Kat_, I just thought that we should look around a little bit, you know see if we can get some advice on that organic garden you wanted to start." They were there primarily to investigate and he did _not_ need the entire town knowing that they were supposedly trying to have a baby and get them completely sidetracked from finding out what had happened to Emma Woods.

"Of course." It was entirely logical to survey all of the booths and then come to a decision as to which one offered the best produce to purchase. And they did need to focus on finding the yard share group as well. She wasn't sure if it was her cover personality or an impulsive gesture of her own, but she leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before tugging him along to the next booth.

He was still back there at that kiss and his mind was spinning about how he wanted to just stop and pull her against him and show her what a real kiss was. They'd shared one of those once, right after they'd met, and then years had gone by and they'd become partners and she seemed off limits. Things had changed again with his declaration and then they'd gone their separate ways again. He wasn't sure they'd _missed_ their moment, he just wasn't sure they were ever going to _get_ their moment.

Fifteen booths and the purchase of a couple of zucchini, a dozen tomatoes, and a loaf of crusty bread later and they finally found the yard share group. They approached hand in hand, Booth's loaded down with the reusable farmer's market tote that they'd purchase when they'd bought the tomatoes so they'd have something to carry their purchases in.

"Haven't seen you folks around here before." A smiling blond woman welcomed the couple as they approached.

"I'm Drew Graham, this is my wife Kat." Booth smiled in return and shrugged the bag as some sort of greeting.

"Yes, we've just moved here. I'm on sabbatical and am very interested in organic gardening." She glanced at Booth with a smirk. "Especially since we're trying to create a child."

The blond woman nodded in agreement. "I'm Chelsea Warren. Organic is definitely better, _especially_ if you're trying to have a child."

"What exactly is a yard share group?" Booth tried to look the part of someone who was genuinely curious as opposed to trained investigator.

"Well, those of us who have extra space in our yards offer it to others who either don't have space for a garden or who just want the camaraderie of other gardeners." Chelsea picked up a pamphlet from the table and handed it to him.

Brennan realized that her best option to integrate herself into this group was to have a reasonable explanation as to why she didn't have time to create her own garden on the generous acre lot their house sat on. "We're only here for a year, but I'm not sure we have enough time to start our own garden, especially since it seems that so many vegetables are already in season."

Chelsea's smile brightened. "Well let me write my phone number on the back here, and you can give me a call. There are a half a dozen yards right in town here that participate and you're more than welcome to come join us."

"Thank you." Brennan accepted her number gratefully.

"What are you on sabbatical from if you don't mind me asking?" This was a small town after all and Chelsea figured that she might as well get the inside scoop since the rest of the town was all caught up in the mystery of what had happened to Emma Woods.

"I'm an archaeology professor back in Virginia and usually when I take time off, I go abroad on a dig." She had no problem fitting right into this role, she knew enough about archaeology to be very convincing.

"Oh, that sounds so interesting." Chelsea's eyes landed on Booth. "And do _you_ usually go on these digs too?" He was a very attractive man and she couldn't imagine that any sane woman would dare leave him behind to fend for himself.

"Not until recently." His mega watt grin was in full force. "We've only been married for a year and a half." To emphasize that he was a happily married newlywed he snaked his free arm around Brennan's waist and pressed his lips to her temple. "Isn't that right, Honey?"

"Yes, but it did take us a while to figure out that we were meant for each other." Brennan wasn't sure if she was talking about Kat and Drew or wistfully thinking about her and Booth and all of the time they'd wasted. Perhaps she should take the opportunity while they were undercover to test the river a little bit to see if giving them a try might still be an option.

"I chased her till she caught me." He whispered conspiratorially to Chelsea who let out a laugh that was definitely not ladylike. As he looked over at the woman he still had his arm around, he felt his heart skip a few beats as their eyes locked onto each other. For a brief moment he wondered if he was going to kiss her, or if she was going to kiss him, at least until they were interrupted and the moment was gone.

"Well you two are just going to have to come over for dinner so you can meet my husband Dan and my two boys. Let me know when you get settled in and we can get you set up with a garden and then get better acquainted." Chelsea really liked these two and she was sure that Kat would fit right into their little gardening group.

"We'd love to." Booth was happy about how easily they'd been invited into the circle.

"Yes, Drew is correct, we would enjoy getting to know you as well." Brennan smiled and easily found Booth's hand, lacing her fingers with his as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "We'll call you soon."


	6. Chapter 6

"This mac and cheese is good." Booth smiled across the table at Bones as he continued to devour a large portion of the macaroni and cheese that their neighbor Paige Templeton had brought over. He clarified his comment as another forkful paused before it got to his mouth. "Not as good as _your_ mac and cheese, but it is very good."

Brennan smiled back. "She is a very good cook, however, I seriously doubt the mystical conception powers she claims that it possesses." Certainly there were foods that were considered aphrodisiacs, but she was fairly certain that something as simple as macaroni and cheese wasn't on the list.

He chuckled nervously. "I'm sure her husband really liked it and it helped him get in the mood." Oh, did he really want to have a conversation like this with her now when they hadn't even discussed the fact that there was still only one bed in the entire house? The couch wasn't even an option because it was more love seat than couch and both of them were a little too tall to get a decent night's sleep on it.

"Ah, so the intrinsic power of the food was a psycho sexual response then." She nodded approvingly and took another bite. She realized that after they ate that they probably needed to figure out the sleeping arrangements. She had done some mental calculations on couch and realized that it was a smaller than average couch, and that while ideal for the space in the small living room, it didn't really provide much space for someone to attempt to sleep on it. The reality was that she and Booth were going to have to share a bed. She was just going to have to compartmentalize, hopefully she'd be able to do that in her sleep too.

"Maybe he just thought his wife was hot when she cooked." And right now he certainly thought that the woman who was posing as _his_ wife was hot and he needed to stop thinking about how sexy she looked just eating or he was going to have to take a very long cold shower before he even attempted to look at the bed they were going to have to share..

"Of course she would be hot, the boiling water to cook pasta creates steam and then when you add the sauce and bake it in the oven, there is quite a lot of heat generated." The fundamentals of cooking were scientific in nature and something like making macaroni and cheese was really a series of chemical reactions changing the state of the foods. She really needed to cook more because she really enjoyed it.

"I wasn't talking about that kind of heat, Bones." He chuckled a little and shook his head. "I mean he probably thought she was _hot_." The tone in his voice made his inference abundantly clear, clear enough that Bones really should pick up on it.

"Oh, hot as in sexually alluring." She smile mischievously. "I would say so, didn't she say they had six children? That would indicate that they enjoyed engaging in intercourse frequently." She was glad that the neighbors had a healthy sexual appetite; that probably meant that they were well adjusted and most likely happy and satisfied in that area of their relationship.

"Can we not discuss the neighbor's sex life while we're eating." Because talking about the neighbors sex life might just lead to discussing their respective sex lives, or lack thereof, and he did not want to know if she was seeing some random guy, or worse, he did not want to have the topic of he and Hannah brought up so that Bones would attempt to dissect why things ended between them. It was bad enough that he was going to have to figure out a way in his sleep to keep from snuggling up against her.

"You were the one that said that you thought Paige's husband must think she's sexually alluring while cooking." They were having a rather enjoyable conversation, but clearly she'd crossed a line again. "I've made you uncomfortable." Her brows knit together as she tried to see just where the invisible 'don't talk about sex' line was.

"Look, Bones, can we just eat and then figure out our game plan for tomorrow?" The sooner they found a way to get information that would lead them to Emma Woods, the sooner they could get back to DC and their regular lives.

"Of course." She fell silent for a few moments as she continued eating. She hadn't meant to offend him, but somehow she had. It was time to find a more neutral topic. "Did you tell Parker you were going undercover?"

Booth couldn't help his smile at the mention of his son. "Yeah, gonna miss his baseball game on Saturday, I wanted to make sure he knew why." Having been gone for so many months in Afghanistan made missing the everyday things with Parker so much more poignant.

Brennan continued, her mind obviously also on the case. "If something happened to Parker, if he disappeared the way that Emma did, what would you do?" She knew that he'd be willing to kill for his son, but this case made her wonder what he would do if he was walking in the shoes of Eric Woods.

Fire lit in his eyes. "I don't even want to think about the possibility of something happening to Parker." There was no doubt in his mind that if someone hurt Parker, he'd hunt them down and make them pay, and in that regard, he could fully understand how Max Keenan could kill the deputy director of the FBI to protect his family and not feel an ounce of remorse over it.

She immediately regretted saying anything. "I'm sorry, I just thought that looking through the eyes of a parent might help with the investigation." She had no frame of reference other than Booth, but she had broken rules and done whatever it took to find him when he'd been kidnapped on more than one occasion and he'd done the same for her. She could only imagine what he would do for his own son.

"I know, Bones, and I'm sorry too." He realized that she'd only been trying to help and so he tried to wrap his mind around just what he would do. He let out a deep breath and then answered her question. "I'd start with tearing that school apart. I wouldn't rest until I'd looked in every corner, every ventilation system duct, every creepy boiler room. And I'd get a list of every person that was anywhere near that school the day she disappeared. Someone had to have seen something out of the ordinary." He looked determined as he pushed his empty plate back and reached for the glass of wine he'd been having with dinner.

"How thoroughly did they search Emma's school?" It followed that if an investigator of Booth's caliber would do that as a first step that a lesser investigator might not have.

"Good question, Bones." And it was a question that he wanted an answer to since the investigative logs didn't reveal much about the search of the school. He reached for his cell phone and punched in the number of their contact in Seattle, Special Agent Walter Lewis. After talking for a few minutes, it became clear that the local police had done a cursory search of the school, but hadn't looked in crawl spaces, janitor closets, or utility rooms. Now over seven weeks later, there was potential evidence that could have been crucial to solving her disappearance that might have been compromised.

He clicked off with Lewis and looked at Bones across the table. "They're going to search the school again. After all this time, it's not likely that they're going to find anything, but Lewis agreed that since she disappeared at the school that it needs to be checked again and a lot more thoroughly." He was frustrated, if the school had been searched to his standards right away, Emma Woods might not be missing and possibly dead.

"There could be trace evidence that was missed that would help them either corroborate that the stepmother Katie Woods had something to do with it, or maybe even rule her out." She picked up her plate and moved towards the sink as if they needed to get going to help with the search for evidence.

Booth gathered his plate as well, but not because he had any intention of leaving the house. "We can't go, Bones. That school is less than a mile from here and we're undercover. We show up there any of the locals see us, we've blown our cover before we've ever gotten any useful information."

Brennan looked like she was about to protest, but her features relaxed as she realized that he was right. As much as she wanted to go help search that school for any potentially missed evidence, if nothing was found they needed to maintain their covers.

"We need to focus on getting close to Katie Woods and the others in the yard share group. She was the last one to see Emma, and she's changed her story several times. The circumstantial evidence points to her." He offered up one of those smiles of his that usually melted her resolve.

"I know." She leaned her hip against the counter and regarded him with a soft expression. "We should call Chelsea Warren tomorrow." The sooner they made more connections in the yard share group, the more information they might find that would lead them to Emma.

"And we should ask the squints to find every story about Emma's disappearance in the news, see if Angela could find some sort of algorithm with the names, see if there are any patterns that come up, to see if there is anyone else we should be talking to. _If_ she can do something like that." Booth had a great deal of faith in the team at the Jeffersonian, something that wasn't immediate, but had been cultivated after years of partnering with Bones.

"I'll send her an email, I'm sure that she and Hodgins are already at home by now, so she'll most likely get to it in the morning." She had learned that Angela's priorities had shifted since she and Jack had gotten married. They were as dedicated as ever when they were at work, but she'd made it clear that barring a case with national security importance or someone up against a death penalty deadline, their personal time together was theirs, especially since she'd recently confided that they were trying to have a baby.

Booth really didn't want their night to end quite yet. As awkward as he was feeling, he really enjoyed spending time alone with her. "Hey, I'm going to have some ice cream for dessert. You want some ice cream?" His smile was charming and he hoped that it would help delay the inevitable conversation they were going to have to have about the sleeping arrangements.

She shook her head and smiled softly in return. "No, I think I'm just going to send that email and head to bed." She pushed away from the counter and considered not for the first time that Booth was going to be very hard to resist and that maybe she really needed to tell him that her feelings had shifted since she'd left for Maluku.

His voice was a bit sing-songy, hopefully covering up the nervous waver that he felt all the way down to his stomach. "You don't know what you're missing." His smile was morphing into what most women would deem a sexy smirk. Well, most women that weren't his partner, she seemed pretty immune to his charms.

Brennan let out a soft laugh and shook her head. "Fine, I'll have some ice cream." A little more time with Booth like this would be nice.

"Alright!" Booth moved to the freezer to grab the ice cream and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Bones had gotten the bowls and spoons. Now the only question was one scoop or two.

As she put the bowls on the counter and watched as he pulled the lid off the carton, she casually addressed the proverbial elephant in the room. "So which side of the bed do you want?"

Booth swallowed hard. "Doesn't matter, which ever one you don't want." Okay, this was definitely going to be a three scoop night.


	7. Chapter 7

The ceiling was mocking him. Booth lay there trying very hard to be completely casual about the fact that he was mere inches from his partner who didn't seem to have any difficulty at all falling asleep. At least he assumed she was asleep. Her breathing was slow and even. He should know, he'd been listening to it now for the last hour ever since she so matter of factly slipped in under the covers next to him, squiggled her way around until he presumed she was comfortable, and then wished him a good night with a glance and a smile before she'd snapped off the bedside light. Now all Booth had for company were his own very inappropriate thoughts and the moonlit shadows of the tree branches playing across the wall.

He let out a deep sigh and folded his arms over his chest over the covers so that there was no way that he could accidentally touch Bones under the covers. Shit! Why did he even have to _think_ about touching Bones under the covers. As if his inappropriate thoughts weren't already out of line, now they were venturing right into the territory of _wildly_ inappropriate. Of course it wasn't like he hadn't had to deal with all of this before.

Before he'd pissed her off so much that she hadn't talked to him for over a year.

Before they'd become partners.

Before he'd been in a coma and thought they were married.

Before he'd admitted to himself that he was in love with her.

Before he'd admitted to her that he wanted to give things between them a shot.

Before she'd crushed his heart.

Before they'd gone their separate ways again.

Before Hannah.

But now Hannah was in the past and this was in the present and he was struggling all over again with how he was feeling for his partner. His partner who was shifting in her sleep. He gritted his teeth and tried to lay stock still, just in case his heavy sigh had woken her up.

"Booth?" Brennan's voice was soft and quiet in the darkness. She'd been doing her best to sleep, but as hard as she'd tried, she still hadn't been able to drift off completely. Reciting the bones of the body silently to herself in every language she knew them in while trying to keep her breathing deep and even hadn't succeeded in distracting her from the bones of the man laying next to her. Bones that she wanted to be able to point out and categorize for him while she did her best to blow his world, or rock his mind, or whatever the phrase was that Angela had shared on numerous occasions.

He hoped that he wasn't as startled as he sounded to his own ears. "Yeah, Bones?" The fact that she was awake made this so much harder. Before he only had to deal with his own thoughts, now that she was awake he had to deal with the nearly overwhelming temptation to just roll on over and kiss her. It was a good thing that he had a lot of practice reciting baseball statistics because he was going to be giving them a major league workout tonight.

She rolled on to her side to face him, seeing his profile illuminated by the moonlight that was sifting in through the blinds. "Are you having trouble sleeping?"

Booth silently groaned. The woman had an annoyingly endearing habit of pointing out the obvious. He cleared his throat and glanced over, noticing just how close she was. He hoped that she couldn't see his eyes flicking down to her lips for a brief moment. "Yeah, I guess the case has me a little keyed up." The case was only a minor part of what had him all keyed up, she was the bigger part of that equation.

"Yes, I suppose that you would be having a more difficult time with this than me since you're a father." Her voice held genuine empathy for him and the way he always seemed to be more affected when a child was involved. As for herself, she did her best to compartmentalize so that she could focus on discovering the cause and manner of death from the bones. This time though was different. There were no remains to identify and they weren't even sure that their victim had been killed. Undercover work was Booth's forte, people were his strength, the whole idea that she needed to be convincing as a newlywed was unsettling for her. She was struggling with how she was feeling towards him and it wasn't like she could do what she might normally do in a situation like this. This was Booth. They were partners, they were friends, and there was far more at stake here. What if he really _had_ moved on and _was_ over her? If that were the case then any attempt to make a romantic overture towards him would be pointless.

"I know this bothers you too, Bones." He shifted just a little bit, not really caring that this was too close, too cozy to keep his heart from beating a little faster. His fingers seemed to have a mind of their own, reaching out and finding hers in the darkness and giving them a squeeze.

"What if we don't find her?" That was her biggest fear in working this case outside of her usual parameters. The reality was that Emma Woods might be hidden away somewhere or she might be dead, the only thing that they knew for sure was that she was missing.

His thumb rubbed softly against the back of her hand reassuringly. "If anyone in that yard share group is involved, we'll know it and we'll find her. If for some reason we don't, it won't be because we didn't give it everything we had. That's what we do, we catch bad guys." His expression was muted in the darkness, but his smile could be heard in the tone of his voice.

"This time we need to find a little girl too." Brennan felt like that lost little girl herself. She'd come back from Maluku sure that she'd have a chance to rectify the mistake she'd made when she'd told Booth that giving them a chance wasn't an option. But then there had been Hannah. Booth had seemed so happy. And she had been so disappointed, but she wanted him to be happy so she'd tried to compartmentalize. She couldn't rationalize away that she had experienced a certain level of euphoric feelings when she'd learned that Booth and Hannah had broken up. It had been an extremely irrational response to the situation, but she was learning that human emotion, especially when related to romantic feelings were very irrational.

"We will." He could feel his breath mingling with hers. How in the hell had he allowed himself to scoot this close, to roll onto his side to face her? The whole idea was to keep his hands to himself and here he was holding hers.

"How can you be so sure?" She just wanted to lean in and kiss him, but she wasn't sure how to read this situation, wasn't really sure how to read him anymore. She needed more data to quantify her feelings so she'd know what do to with them.

"Because we're the best." Booth hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. The truth was that there were cases that went unsolved, children that were never found, and criminals that went free because there just wasn't enough evidence. Still, they were there and they were going to try. They were the best and they were going to try.

"We _are_ very good." She couldn't argue with sound logic, and objectively they were the best at what they did. She let out a sigh, perhaps this would all work out and they would find Emma Woods. This was one time that she hoped her expertise would not be needed in solving a case however.

"However, we won't be any good if we don't get any sleep." He really needed to put a little space between them if his sanity was going to stay intact for the duration of this case.

"You make a valid point." Of course the reason she hadn't been able to sleep had more to do with the fact that they were sharing a bed than her concerns about the case.

"Goodnight, Bones." He didn't know what the hell he was thinking, leaning in and softly brushing his lips against her forehead as he squeezed her hand one last time, but he just couldn't stop himself.

She found herself leaning in towards him quickly, pressing a kiss against his cheek in return before she rolled away from him and pulled her pillow in close. "Goodnight, Booth."

He listened as her breathing evened out and he was sure that she was really asleep this time. He let out a deep sigh and stared back up at the ceiling which seemed to be taunting him even more than it was before.

This was going to be one hell of a long night.

No, this was going to be one hell of a long _case_.


	8. Chapter 8

Something didn't seem quite right to Brennan as the haze of sleep slowly began to lift and the first rays of morning light slipped in through the blinds. Her blanket seemed to be much warmer and clingier than she remembered and it seemed to be breathing as well. In all of her experience in sleeping, she never once recalled a big breathing blanket. Especially not one that sounded like it was snoring. She shifted a little to try and assess the situation to see if she was actually still sleeping.

Oh!

Now that was something that definitely belonged to a man, not a blanket. Her eyes blinked open and she took in her surroundings, finally remembering that she and Booth were undercover. She let out a soft snicker as she realized that they were literally under the covers as well. Of course that posed a bit of a problem because not only were they under the covers, but Booth had snuggled up against her during the night and had an arm wrapped around her waist and his face buried in the nape of her neck.

Then of course there was the thing that had caused her to open her eyes in the first place. For a man as private as Booth was about things of a sexual nature, she was sure that he was going to be mortified to find them waking up in this predicament. She considered whether she should just slip out of bed carefully to avoid embarrassing him. In fact that seemed like a very good idea, at least until she heard him mumble into her hair.

"So pretty, smell so good. Mmm, so nice." Something was tickling Booth's nose, but it smelled so good he wasn't sure he wanted to pull his face away and besides he felt so cozy. His pillow was so soft and smelled like Bones that he didn't want to wake up because this was a really, really nice dream. In fact, his pillow seemed soft and curvy like a sexy woman, like a sexy Bones even, and as his brain tried very hard to fit all of the pieces of this wonderful dream together, he realized that his pillow seemed to be breathing too.

His eyes shot open and he nearly let out a yelp as he realized that he'd gotten all cozy during the night and was currently spooning Bones. And if that wasn't bad enough, one special part of him seemed to be far more aware of the situation and was trying to celebrate. He only hoped that Bones was still asleep and hadn't noticed the situation.

Brennan decided that simply slipping out of bed was no longer an option and so she decided to just acknowledge the obvious. "Did you sleep okay?"

Booth froze. He found he was having a hard time letting her go and just scooting back over to a safer part of the bed. "Uh, yeah, I did. You?" What he really wanted to do was press kisses against her neck while his hand slid right up her shirt to let her know how he could have slept even better. Of course he also wanted to live all the way to the end of the case and so he concentrated really hard so that his hand wouldn't do anything more inappropriate than his shorts had already tried.

"Yes, I slept well." She didn't seem to be in any hurry to disentangle herself from Booth and get out of bed, and truthfully, she wondered if this might be an ideal time to let him know that she wanted to give a romantic relationship between them a try. Her indecision had her frozen to the spot.

"Must have been cold last night." Yeah, that was a perfectly good reason for why he'd wrapped himself around her. At least he hoped that she bought it, because it wasn't like he did this to every woman he had ever slept with. He enjoyed a little space when he slept most of the time.

"Perhaps you just subconsciously forgot in your sleep that you broke up with Hannah." It made sense to her that if had been used to sharing a bed with a woman that he had been with for a while that he would naturally reach for her in his sleep. And if he was just a close sleeper, this would give him an out.

"What?" There was no way in hell he was thinking about Hannah when he was sharing a bed with Bones. In fact he'd had a very nice dream that he wasn't about to share that had been all her and him and well, he really did not need to think about that right now at all.

"I'm sure you were accustomed to sleeping closely with her like this." There was something in her voice that she couldn't hide that smacked of jealousy and longing, and she was sure that of all people Booth would be able to hear it. Why she hadn't bothered to pull herself out of his sleepy embrace defied reason.

"Not really." His mind was trying to wrap itself around what he thought he was hearing, but his self doubt seemed to be screaming louder. "She wasn't really much of a cuddler." And he really didn't want to talk about Hannah at a time like this, not when he still had his arm around Bones and he was doing everything in his power to fight the temptation to tell her exactly _why_ he and Hannah had broken up. Women didn't appreciate hearing another woman's name in bed when they were supposed to be the one you were in love with. That had been his demise with Hannah.

"I would have assumed that she would have taken advantage of your nocturnal penile tumescence and engaged you in intercourse." She knew that if she was seeing someone as symmetrically pleasing as Booth that she would enjoy the opportunity.

Booth wanted to die. Instead, he finally released his hold on his partner and rolled onto his back away from her wondering if he shouldn't just bolt from the bed and take a nice long run around the block, or maybe all the way back to D.C. "I'm sorry about that, Bones." He closed his eyes and let out a curse under his breath.

Brennan seemed completely unphased by it. "It's a perfectly natural biological occurrence for healthy men, Booth. It's nothing to be ashamed of." And if she had felt bolder, she might have added that while it had surprised her because she hadn't expect to find him wrapped around her like a big cozy blanket, she found the idea of him fully aroused extremely arousing to her, natural biological occurrence or not.

"It doesn't make it any less embarrassing." He hissed out, completely mortified that she had been aware of the situation in his boxer shorts. At least he hadn't fondled or groped her in his sleep, well he hoped he hadn't anyway, those were the the sorts of things you wanted to be awake for.

She rolled over towards him, completely oblivious to the way her tousled hair and sleepy eyes made her all that much more tempting to Booth. "You shouldn't be embarrassed, Booth. Did Hannah make you feel self conscious about it?" If that was the case then the woman was more of an idiot than she'd first thought.

Booth groaned inwardly as he tried not to openly stare at her. "Can we not talk about Hannah? We broke up, okay? And I'm fine with it. It wasn't going to work out, so we ended it." He only hoped this covered any questions that he knew that Bones was going to ask. They hadn't really talked about his breakup before now and she had the annoying niggling way of chipping away at him until he told her what she wanted to know. Not that he held it against her, that was all part of the charm of Temperance Brennan and her socially awkward bluntness.

"I'm sorry." Brennan slid her hand over and rested it on his arm, her head tilting slightly as she offered him a warm smile. "You deserve to be happy, I'm sorry that things between you didn't work out." She really wasn't that sorry because _she_ wanted to be the one that made him happy, but she just wasn't sure that he felt that way about her any more.

He was skeptical that she actually meant what she said, and against his better judgement the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Are you really sorry? I mean I never really thought you liked Hannah very much." He studied her face for a brief moment and then felt guilty and glanced away. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried, but things between he and Bones had been awkward the entire time that he'd been with Hannah. It was only after the breakup that things had started to get back to some sense of normalcy.

She flinched at the truth in his words, she hadn't liked Hannah, but it wasn't because she wasn't a nice woman or wouldn't have made a good friend. Her only problem with Hannah was that she was the woman that had captured Booth's heart and she had been jealous. "Everything changed because of her."

"Everything _had_ to change, Bones." He really wasn't sure what she was getting at, but even now he knew they couldn't go back to exactly the way things had been before. He just needed to get a grip and figure out how to move on. He glanced over and noticed that her expression was one he couldn't read and she looked like she didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry, but I put myself out there and you didn't want me." It was blunt, but blunt was something that she understood very well.

Brennan looked over at him earnestly with her eyes wide and she felt like she was wearing her metaphorical heart on her forehead. "I made a mistake, Booth. I was scared, as irrational as that sounds. After my months in Maluku I came to realize that in fact I should have given a relationship of a romantic nature between us a chance."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all of you for such a great response for the last chapter. I only hope that _this_ chapter won't have you chasing me down with virtual pitchforks. ;) In any case, I wanted to give a shout out to GreysIsTheCatsPajamas for her input on this chapter. So without further interruption, let's continue shall we.

* * *

"What?" Booth looked at her in disbelief. He was furiously trying to make his brain process what he thought she'd said, but he was still working on waking up. He just stared at her as if his wildest dreams were about to come true but he was sure there was a loophole somewhere.

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have pushed you away. I should have given us a chance." Brennan felt her heart beating madly in her chest and despite the fact that she felt something akin to an urge to throw up, she was sure it was purely a nervous reaction from not knowing what Booth was going to say or do.

Booth felt his heart skip a beat as he realized that she was definitely saying what he thought she was and he blinked a few times before he could find his words. "What about the part where you were afraid that the FBI would split us up?" He couldn't bear to go down this road unless he knew that she was completely serious. Besides, she hadn't actually _said_ that she wanted to give them a chance _now_. Bones was nothing if not literal and he needed her to literally tell him _exactly_ what she meant.

"If Andrew could make an exception for himself to see me, there should be a way for there to be an exception for us to see each other and still work together." She only hoped that this was true. She had not way to guarantee that it would be, but after seeing Booth in a serious relationship with someone else, she had realized that she wanted more from him than just being his partner at work. She only hoped she wasn't too late.

"Wow." His mouth kept opening and closing, not really sure what to say and sure that he needed to say more than one tiny little three letter word while doing a rather convincing imitation of a large mouthed bass. He was rooted to the spot on his side of the bed as he let his mind process this new information.

There was a hitch in her voice as she continued. "I understand that you've moved on, but I was compelled to say something because I thought you should know." There was a sadness in her tone that spoke volumes of missed opportunities and a life spent alone, unloved, and unwanted. A belief that maybe she knew that her life was destined to be that way.

He finally found his voice, which was edged in disbelief. "What makes you think I've moved on, Bones?" He let out a bewildered chuckle as it all started to sink in and make sense.

"But you were with Hannah, you fell in love with her in Afghanistan." Could it be possible that she hadn't missed her moment with Booth? Was there a chance that there was still time? That was almost too much for her to hope for, and yet there she was - hoping for a miracle when she didn't even believe that miracles existed.

A feeling of euphoria was starting to build inside of Booth and while he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his wildest dream was in fact coming true before his eyes. He rolled onto his side to face her, hoping that he wasn't hallucinating this whole thing. "Why do you think things didn't work out with Hannah?"

"I assume that you decided that you didn't like each other any more." She really had no idea if that was why things didn't work out between Booth and Hannah, but she knew that was the reason that the vast majority of dating relationships ended.

He snickered at the irony of it all. "I think it had a whole lot more to do with saying someone else's name during the big moment." And while he could laugh about it now, at the time it happened he was just glad he survived the incident with his manhood intact.

"Oh." Brennan blinked at him, unsure of whether he had found someone other than Hannah already.

Booth could tell she was feeling a little too vulnerable as if she wasn't quite picking up on his implication. "Bones, she broke up with me because I said _your_ name." He couldn't be any more blunt than that, but it seemed to be effective.

She couldn't help herself as her eyes widened. She giggled in blessed relief.

"You're not doing anything for my ego here, Bones." His self doubt came back in waves and he wondered again if he shouldn't just get out of bed and take a nice cold shower. Maybe he had completely misread what she'd said to him.

"Booth, I'm sorry." Were those tears she felt pricking at the corner's of her eyes? "I was so sure that you'd moved on and I didn't think you'd want me anymore." She was wearing her insecurity like a badge.

His heart seemed to leap in his chest and his eyes snapped to hers. "How could you think I wouldn't want you anymore?" The look she gave him made him backpedal and he glanced away chagrined. "Okay, I can see how me coming back from Afghanistan with a woman might make you think that, but I thought _you_ didn't want _me_. I was _trying_ to move on." He let out a deep breath and plowed full speed ahead. His voice was soft but earnest as he edged a little closer to her. "I _still_ think I'm that guy, Bones. Thirty, forty, fifty years. I think that could be you and me." His heart was beating so fast he felt a little dizzy, or maybe it was just that he was so close to Bones that he could have leaned in and kissed her with very little effort at all, but he held himself in check because he needed to know that _she_ wanted this.

"You think so?" Wistful hope filled Brennan's voice, but she didn't close the distance between them. It was almost all too much to take in.

"I do." His smile spread across his face and he realized that they could lay here all morning going back and forth like this or one of them could just make a move.

"I _want_ to believe that what you're saying is possible. Logically, there is no evidence that proves that we will be successful, but I also believe that this is one of those instances where trusting your gut would be appropriate, since there is also no evidence to suggest that we _won't_ be successful." Her smile matched his as she looked directly into his eyes in solidarity of what they'd just shared.

"Do you want to try? Because if you do, I sure do." He couldn't resist reaching out and touching her face, letting his fingers gently trail across her cheek as he waited for her to say something.

She didn't answer, she simply leaned in and pressed her lips against his, telling him all the things that she couldn't find the words for. Her fingers found purchase on his shoulders as she pulled him in closer.

Booth didn't need any further encouragement, he'd been waiting for this moment for far too long - a moment that he wasn't even sure they would ever get. His fingers slipped into her hair and he kissed her back without any hesitation, deepening it when she let out a sigh against his mouth. It was only an overwhelming need for a breath of air that made him pull his lips away and rested his forehead against hers.

"It's unfortunate that we have to stop kissing to breathe." She was breathing heavily and had a sexy smirk on her face and the thought occurred to her that there was no reason for either one of them to hurry out of bed, they were posing as a couple of newlyweds trying to have a baby after all. In fact it would probably raise a few eyebrows if they didn't linger in bed, especially the first morning in their new house.

Kissing was definitely not all Booth had on his mind as his lips pressed against hers again. He wanted nothing more than to get lost in this woman that he loved and forget about the rest of the world an everything in it.

The universe seemed to be conspiring against them however, as a loud crashing sound in the vicinity of the back door sounded, stopping both of them cold. His sniper senses on high alert, Booth froze trying to hear any further sound of an intruder.

"Did you hear that?" Brennan's heart was beating wildly, and she was sure if it was just because of the man hovering over her, or the sudden interruption, and she wasn't willing to give either one credit quite yet.

Booth listened for a moment and heard the scraping and clanging of metal outside the house yet again, as he listened for another moment leaving him acutely aware of his always brave partner's nails digging into his arms.

She whispered in the dim morning light. "Booth?"


	10. Chapter 10

"Did you hear that?" She repeated, unsure if she had actually asked in the first place.

"Of course I heard that!" His voice hissed out in a hushed whisper. He had heard it and he only wished that he could actually ignore it.

Another crashing sound and both of them were scrambling out of bed to see where the commotion was coming from.

"Bones, stay back." Booth had grabbed his gun as they ran out of the bedroom and was trying to keep his partner from running headlong into danger. Satisfied that her hands on his back meant that she wasn't going to get ahead of the gun, he slowly made his way to the back door where he could still hear scratching noises up against the door.

She whispered loudly. "Maybe I should open the door and you could shoot whoever is out there." If he shot them, sure there would be paperwork, but at least they could go back to bed.

"I'm not _shooting_ anything until I know what it is." He whispered back. How could she go from irresistible to annoying in such a short span of time? He stopped just short of the door and after being bumped into by one sexy forensic anthropologist, he reached over and slowly opened the door.

"Sorry." Brennan's voice was just above a whisper and as she felt the tension drain out of Booth's shoulders as he opened the door even wider, she tried to peak around him to see what had caused all of the noise. "What is it?"

"A dog." The smile in his voice was evident and he let out a laugh as the wet black and white bundle of fur trotted right in through the doorway and sat down, looking up at the pair that had been so kind to let it in out of the rain. "I think he knocked over the trash cans looking for something to eat."

"We should feed him." It was perfectly logical and Brennan was already entranced, crouching down to pet the dog on the head and scratch him behind the ears. She noticed something shiny dangling from the collar that hung around the dog's neck. "He has an I.D. tag."

"What's it say, Bones?" He shut the door from the wet breezy weather outside and tried to look over her shoulder to see if he could read it for himself as he realized that they were ill equipped to feed a dog anything since his lovely partner had talked him out of nearly every cut of meat at the store by talking about hormones and antibiotics. He'd finally been able to sneak in a couple of steaks because they were grass fed and organic. Dog or no dog, he was not giving up those steaks for anyone.

"It doesn't actually _say_ anything. However, from what I'm reading on the tag, the dog is a _she_ and her name is Cordelia." She let out an amused chuckle. "You being the heart person should appreciate that her name is from the Latin word for heart." She flipped the tag around to see if there was any additional identifying information. Her eyes widened as she found a very interesting tidbit of information. "Booth, what is the statistical probability that this dog belongs to Emma Woods' family?" As she looked back at him, she smirked at the sight of him standing there barefoot, gun in hand, in the t-shirt and boxers he'd slept in with his hair all mussed up.

"Well since you just said that, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that this dog is our ticket to a nice little introduction to the prime suspect without raising any eyebrows." He engaged the safety on his gun, set it on the counter, and crouched down next to Bones and the dog. "Aren't you a pretty little thing?" His sing-songy voice earned a raised eyebrow from his partner and a wag of a tail from the dog.

"I'm fairly certain that dogs are immune to your Booth charm." She smirked in amusement. "We should call them and let them know we have their dog." Surely the sooner they did this, the sooner they would be able to ascertain the location of Emma Woods and the sooner they did that they could go back to bed and resume the romantic encounter that they had started without any concern that they might be interrupted.

"It's a little early in the morning to be calling people we don't know, Bones." One glance at the clock they'd passed in the hallway told him that it was barely past six. By his account, they had a couple more hours they could easily spend in that bed and from the way the dog was behaving, she looked more interested in finding a nice warm, dry place to curl up and go to sleep than eating anything or heading back home. At least for a couple of hours anyway.

"That is a very rational argument." Going back to bed for a while, even if she had no intention of actually sleeping had its merits and since Cordelia the dog seemed right at home on the kitchen floor where she was now laying contentedly there should be no more interruptions.

Booth smiled at her as he straightened up and held out his hand to her. "What do you say we get a couple more hours of shut eye before we give Katie Woods a call?" Not that he really thought they'd be sleeping, he just wanted a really good excuse to get all cozy with his Bones and see where things went. He certainly knew where things were headed when they'd been interrupted by Cordelia knocking over the garbage cans and scratching at the door.

"I'm not sure why you assume we'll be shutting our eyes." She had a sultry smile on her face as she let him pull her up from where she'd been crouching on the floor and she immediately slid an arm around his waist and leaned in to kiss him. Why she had ever thought she could resist him for so long she wasn't sure. Hiding behind scientific explanations for all the things she'd been feeling for him had almost cost her any chance with him at all. She no longer wanted to have any reason to regret that they didn't at least try.

He pulled away a few moments later and looked into her eyes with his most charming smile. "Yeah, you're right, I'm pretty sure shut eye is the wrong phrase." In a move that was decidedly alpha male and part cave man, he scooped her up much the way he had when they had first walked into the house, smiling at her girlish squeal, and marched purposefully back to the bedroom where he gently deposited her on the bed before crawling in after her. He thought she looked amazingly sexy, all sleep rumpled in a simple spaghetti strap tank and pajama pants and he simply couldn't wait to become well acquainted with her soft curves.

Brennan let out a sigh as he settled in next to her under the covers, smiling as they seemed to gravitate together, their lips meeting softly as if there wasn't a care in the world outside of that bed. For once in her life she wasn't in any hurry to get to the main event because she was enjoying the pleasure of leisurely kissing Seeley Booth.

That contentment was short-lived however, when one now lonely little dog decided to go in search of the nice people who had let her in out of the rain. She trotted down the hall in the direction that she'd seen them disappear and with a soft nudge, Cordelia nosed the bedroom door open and wagged her tail as she saw them looking nice and cozy in that big soft bed. Happy that she was no longer alone, she crept over towards the bed and with a single bound, she leapt up onto it and tried to plop herself down right between them, wagging her tail as two sets of eyes popped up in surprise.


	11. Chapter 11

If Seeley Booth thought his dreams were going to come true that morning, they were dashed the moment a very cute dog with impeccably bad timing jumped up on the bed and came between he and Bones. It was clear that with little Cordelia around neither sleeping nor a little morning canoodling was going to happen. So they had gotten up and started getting ready for the day. And in retrospect that was probably a good thing. Here he and Bones were ready to leap right across the line and jump up several levels without pausing to see if they should pace themselves a little. Or at the very least, make sure that they had the whole question of birth control covered, unless they really did want to try for a baby. They had talked about that quite some time ago under very different and supposedly platonic circumstances before his brain tumor and it hadn't come up since then. He had no idea if she had changed her mind about children in general, but he didn't think that starting out a relationship that he hoped was serious by accidentally having a baby was really a very good idea. He wanted to make sure that they were on the same page with this next thirty, forty, or fifty years before they had as many children as she wanted. He was already a part time dad to Parker, he didn't need to make things any more complex than they already were. The fact that there was probably a bit more to talk about in the grander scheme of things spoke volumes, and then there was the whole reason they were here in the first place to consider.

If he was disappointed that separate showers replaced any intent to do the naked mamba, he didn't show it as he busied himself by pulling together the ingredients to make French toast while Bones lingered in the bathroom. This wasn't the first undercover operation they'd been on and so he'd sort of gotten used to this girly side of her that seemed to take forever to get ready. Not that she couldn't be ready with five minutes notice if need be, but today he was glad he was getting the glammed up Bones because deep down he knew that she was doing it for him, objectification or not, he was gorgeous and she wanted him.

"You seem pretty happy for a guy who didn't get his luck together this morning." Not that she at all believed in luck, but she had been working on her pop culture references and she was pretty sure she'd hammered that one. He looked strong and manly like the alpha male he was standing there making her breakfast in his jeans and another vintage rock t-shirt.

He glanced up with an amused smirk on his face, drinking in how sexy she looked just dressed in jeans and a button up shirt, her damp hair curling into soft tendrils. "Lucky. The phrase is I didn't get lucky." He gestured at the dog who had happily trotted after him into the kitchen and plopped herself down on the floor as Bones made her way over to stand near him as he continued to make breakfast. "If our little visitor hadn't interrupted, what were my chances?" He didn't want to presume that she wanted to jump right in bed with him. Well, actually that wasn't true at all, they'd been _in_ bed when she'd revealed that she had feelings for him and wanted to give them a shot. It was sex that he wasn't so sure about. Sure the signs were all there, but this was Bones and this was completely uncharted territory between them.

"I'd say that your chances for getting lucky were excellent before Cordelia came into the room." She found it interesting that Booth didn't seem nearly as uncomfortable discussing the subject of sex and it occurred to her that maybe the reason he had been uncomfortable before was because of the feelings he had for her. She couldn't help the smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth.

"I'll remember that the next time we're sharing a bed." He winked as he slid the first piece of French toast onto a plate.

"Well unless we solve the case today, that will likely be tonight." She was definitely looking forward to a leisurely inspection of Booth up close and personal, and she was sure based on her observations of his physique so far that the sexual act itself would be very enjoyable.

He smiled broadly at her for a moment before his expression faltered. He supposed this was as good a time as any to bring up all of the nitty gritty details, especially since they were both fully clothed.

"What?" As much as she didn't read people very well, she knew Booth and she was suddenly afraid that he was having second thoughts. Perhaps it was too soon after Hannah for him to embark upon another serious relationship.

"Are you on birth control?" His words came out in a rush and he suddenly felt very nervous. "Because if you're not, I need to go and get some condoms, lots of condoms." He stood there for what seemed like an eternity while he waited for her to say something and for the floor to swallow him up until she did.

Her eyes were wide as she took a moment to process his words. He wasn't rejecting her, he simply wanted to be responsible. He was just being Booth, the Booth that she had finally figured out that she wanted to be in her life for as long as she had one. "No not on birth control. Yes, condoms would be good."

Relief came whooshing out with the breath he didn't realize he was holding along with a nervous chuckle. But as he tried to speak again he felt his words constricting his throat as he just stared at her, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that they really were having this conversation. "If you have a preference, that would be good to know."

"I would assume that you have a preference of your own." She had found that most men enjoyed themselves more if they felt comfortable. No need to insist on a particular brand if he preferred one himself.

"Uh, sure." He really wasn't getting his point across.

"However, I find that a little variety is nice." Her smirk was slightly predatory. "It all depends on the experience you want." The condom wasn't the most important thing, the man she was with was.

"Do you have a favorite?" He lowered his voice a little, the result was a sort of fake sexy that was endearing in its honesty. He felt like a complete idiot, definitely not the epitome of an alpha male to be sure. "Because I could get a variety and let you pick...uh, or..." He felt like his brain was seizing up. So much for being suave. He blinked at her and found that his mouth suddenly didn't want to work to form words.

"As long as it's you, it doesn't matter." She looked right at him, feeling her heart beating wildly in her chest at what was happening here. Somehow this conversation was more intimate than the fact that they had slept in the same bed. A sizzling sound distracted her and as she glanced down, she nudged him. "The French toast is burning."

"Oh, shit." Booth quickly scooped the burned remnants of the toast onto a plate and then scraped the pan a little before putting another one in to start over. "I suppose maybe I should pay a little more attention if I'm going to make us breakfast." He sent up a silent prayer of thanks for being saved by the toast.

She simply smiled at him and leaned in to kiss him briefly, looking into his eyes as she pulled back. "I'm very much looking forward to having intercourse with you later."

He nearly choked and let out a nervous chuckle. "I just _love_ how blunt you are." He knew she wasn't going to pick up on the sarcasm and he realized that if he was going to get through the day with any focus at all, he was going to have to draw upon all of the images of dead bodies he'd ever seen.

"Thank you." She would have leaned in to kiss him again, but a knock sounded softly at the front door and she decided that since Booth was making breakfast she would go see who it was.

Cordelia who had until that moment practically been part of the linoleum seemed to immediately infuse with an abundance of energy as she race headlong towards the door barking up a storm, leaving both of them in her wake.

Brennan had gotten a grip on the dog's collar as she opened the door to find their next door neighbor Paige standing there with what appeared to be a thermos of something in her hand, completely unphased by the drizzly weather. "Good morning."

"I didn't realize you and Drew had a dog." Paige smiled as she looked at the wriggling pup.

"No, we don't. She knocked over the garbage cans in the backyard earlier and was scratching at the back door. She walked right in when we went out to find what the noise was." She wasn't going to mention the fact that they had stalked to the door with Booth toting his gun. At the thought of the gun, she hoped Booth had bothered to move it from the kitchen counter to somewhere less obvious. "We were going to call the number on her tag and take her home after we had breakfast." Brennan wondered if everyone in this town was up as early as their neighbor as she noted a few people out walking their dogs further down the street.

"Smells good." Paige held up the thermos. "I brought you two some real coffee. I figured that since you're from the East Coast that you might not be able to know where to get the best coffee. I guess you could call me a coffee snob, but I have to say that I think this is some of the best."

"Would you like to come in and have some breakfast?" Brennan was going out on a branch, but she thought that Booth would appreciate the opportunity to get to know someone who probably knew more about the neighborhood and the town than anyone really realized.

"Don't mind if I do." Paige smiled and walked right in, waiting until the door was closed to follow her back to the kitchen even though she knew the way quite well since she'd known nearly everyone who had lived in the house in the twenty years she'd been in the neighborhood.


	12. Chapter 12

"Drew, we have company for breakfast." Brennan hoped that she was giving Booth enough warning to stash his gun somewhere so that Paige wouldn't have any reason to suspect that they weren't Drew and Kat Graham, on sabbatical and working very hard to conceive a child.

As they rounded the corner into the kitchen, Paige smiled at the site of Kat's husband cooking away. "Brought you two some coffee. Figured that being from the East Coast and all, you needed to be properly initiated into this town of coffee snobs." Her smile was good natured as she held the thermos aloft like you might with a bottle of fine wine.

"We do love coffee." Booth had been glad that Bones had let him know that the knock at the door had just become another seat at the breakfast table. He'd very quietly slipped his gun into the utensil drawer and mentally smacked himself for letting his libido make him so careless about securing his firearm earlier. He was definitely going to have to do better next time. Just the thought of there being a next time widened his smile.

Cordelia had trotted happily back to the kitchen and resumed her spot on the floor while Brennan pulled out come coffee mugs and set them on the table and Paige took a seat.

"I invited Paige to stay for breakfast." Brennan offered Booth a smile as their eyes connected and she seemed to convey to him that this was a wonderful opportunity to casually interrogate their neighbor about what she knew. Being a local she would have a perspective that might offer up some information that they would otherwise not be privy to.

"Just in time for my special French toast." Hopefully his son's favorite Saturday morning breakfast would work some magic with their neighbor, but just in case, he decided that he was going to play up the newlywed story as much as possible and he winked at Bones.

"Well you two sure have gotten settled in pretty quick." Paige was impressed that Kat and Drew had managed to get nearly all unpacked in such a short time.

"The movers did most of the work for us." Brennan jumped right in. "Since we're only here for a year, we left most of our furniture at home in Virginia." She'd moved enough times herself to know just how invaluable professional movers could be and how easy it made to settle into a new place quickly.

"It looks homey." Paige opened the thermos and carefully filled each of the mugs. She had observed the comfy couch and chair gathered near the fireplace in the living room and imagined that it would be a nice place to linger before bedtime.

"Thank you." Brennan's smile was genuine. "I did bring some of my favorite artifacts to decorate with." It wasn't completely the truth, but she did pick her favorites from the ones the FBI had provided to them for their cover story.

Paige looked amused that Kat thought artifacts were what made the place homey, but each to their own, it seemed that it worked for these two and that's what was important now wasn't it. "Sure smells good."

"Your family nearby?" Booth casually slipped a helping of French toast on each of the three plates he'd pulled out of the cupboard and began to set them on the table. He recalled Paige mentioning a dear husband but had yet to meet him, and then there were those six children. As he slipped a plate in front of Bones he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, smiling as he sat down at the table across from her.

"My Frank is residing in Forest Lawn Cemetery these days, I go visit him at least once a week and update him on what's going on with the kids." She had a wistful smile on her face. "Most of the kids have moved further into the city. Just Jenny and Steve are out this way."

They were all seated at the table now, plates full of French toast sprinkled with a little powdered sugar and drizzled with maple syrup in front of them and a nice mug of coffee in hand. They all began to dig in and Booth glanced over at Bones, his smile widening as he considered how much he wanted this kind of life with her outside of this case.

While no one was watching, Cordelia had been inching closer and closer to the table just in case some sort of tasty morsel came her way, perhaps a little too close because she pressed a wet nose to Paige's ankle and garnered a startled yelp out of the older woman.

"Almost forgot about the dog." She glanced down at the mop of black and white fur and then narrowed her gaze, putting down her fork. "You know it looks a little familiar. Did the dog's tag have a name on it?" She glanced up at her hosts to see what they had to say.

"Her name is Cordelia." Brennan answered before popping a bite of French toast in her mouth.

Booth interjected. "She was rattling the garbage cans this morning and startled Kat and I." He was going to leave out the part about how he'd inched down the hallway with gun in hand over a dog. He wasn't afraid of much, just very prepared to protect.

Paige let out a chuckle. "Yep, I knew she looked familiar." Her chuckle turned to a sigh as she . "Dog runs away at least once a week. I think she's looking for Emma. Such a sad story." She shook her head and then reached down and gave the dog a pat. "You miss your girl, don't you girl."

"Emma?" Booth decided to see what Paige had to say and so he feigned perplexed and exchanged a glance with Bones.

"Surely you've heard about the disappearance of little Emma Woods, I'd think it had made the national news." Paige glanced down at the dog. "Ever since she disappeared, Cordelia here's been running away. At least that's what Katie says. I've had to return her a couple of times myself."

"Is Katie Emma's mom?" Brennan sounded far more natural than she felt as she took another bite.

Paige shook her head. "No, but she's the only mom Emma's ever known. Emma's mom Carrie died in a car accident when Emma was about a year old. Eric and Katie met a year or so after that and seemed real happy together at least until Emma disappeared."

Booth sipped his coffee and offered a thoughtful question. "I think I remember hearing about her disappearance. Seems like the media thinks Katie is somehow involved." And the reason for that was because Katie had been the last one they knew of that had seen Emma alive.

"I don't believe she'd ever do anything to that little girl. I've known Katie since she was a little girl, she's a friend of my girl Jenny. Not a mean bone in her body. There has to be some other explanation for what happened to her." Paige's expression clouded for a moment.

"Bones don't have emotions." Brennan didn't quite understand why someone would think that the skeletal structure of a living being would be upset by something.

Booth snorted out a laugh. "It's an expression, hon." He grinned at her and then glanced over at Paige. "My wife can be very literal at times. Goes hand in hand with the genius scientific brain of hers." The smile on his face made it very clear that he was more than pleased by that fact.

"You two are a little quirky, but sometimes that makes for the best marriages." Paige smiled at each of them and then as if something had suddenly dawned on her, she glanced back at the dog. "I think maybe those investigators should take a little closer look at that nephew of Eric's. His own parents kicked him out about a year ago and Eric and Katie took him in to try and help straighten him out. He's always been a little surly from what I understand and maybe he's the reason poor Cordelia here isn't so happy at home."

Brennan gave Booth a meaningful glance that clearly conveyed that maybe, just maybe they'd just uncovered a very valuable nugget of information. This impromptu neighborly breakfast was working out far better than she could have imagined and she smiled genuinely. "More French toast, Paige?"


	13. Chapter 13

Dogs. Neighbors. Booth was beginning to think that interruptions in this town might actually be a good thing for the case, but not so good for making a little time with Bones. Not that he was complaining about making progress on the case, that was what they were there for after all. He was just a little anxious to focus some attention on Bones now that there had been this massive revelation that them being an us was a reality.

They'd enjoyed their breakfast with Paige, and afterwards they'd sent her off with promises that they'd all do it again. Her thermos of wonderful coffee had been emptied along with the information on where the blend of beans could be purchased and her casserole dish minus the macaroni and cheese they'd had for dinner the night before went along with her. Now here he was washing dishes from breakfast while he could just faintly hear Bones apparently leaving Katie Woods a message about Cordelia in hopes of making arrangements to bring the dog back.

Brennan sauntered back into the kitchen and smiled as she leaned her hip against the counter next to where Booth stood. He was decidedly sexy no matter what he was doing and she couldn't help but study him. "No one answered. I left a message." She continued to study him the way she might study a new set of remains that she was doing a preliminary examination of.

"What?" He let out an amused chuckle at the way she was checking him out while he worked on the last few dishes.

"I find you symmetrically pleasing." She inched a little closer and her eyes had a mischievous glint in them. "And I want to kiss you." She just stood there looking at him as if all she wanted to do was deliver the information, not actually do anything about it.

No one ever said that Seeley Booth wasn't a man of action, but he was also a man who had waited patiently for a very long time for the woman standing next to him to wake up and realize that they were meant for each other. He placed the last dish in the rack and turned off the faucet, drying his hands before he turned to face her. He quirked an eyebrow at the way she was still just standing there looking at him expectantly. "You want to kiss me?"

Her lips twitched into a smirk. "Yes." At the thought, she found her eyes dropping down to his lips momentarily before she glanced back up to see a slightly predatory look in Booth's eyes.

His arms quickly snaked around her waist and pulled her against him and whispered against her lips. "I think that is a very reasonable request." Her lips were soft and warm and very willing as his connected with hers and he considered not for the first time that maybe it was still early enough that they could get away with just going back to bed. Of course that was his libido talking. In his rational mind which was very quickly getting lost in the moment he knew that they still had a few things to iron out before they crossed the irrevocable line.

Brennan smiled as they parted, finding that she rather liked this very non-guy hug that lingered even as they broke the kiss. "I enjoyed that immensely." She found amusement dancing in his eyes as she looked into them.

"You did, did you?" Leave it to Bones to put things so politely.

She tilted her head slightly, her brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, I may need further data to quantify the experience." Surely any good scientist would agree that gathering large amounts of data would be a very good thing to ensure that the experiment could be measured successful, and if a few variables were added, it would bring even more validity to the results.

"Data schmata." He leaned in and kissed her again, this time taking advantage of their proximity to the counter to turn and trap her between him and the cabinetry. The way that her fingers slipped up and into his hair, he could tell that she was definitely enjoying herself. The little purring sounds that seemed to escape unbidden from Bones as the kiss deepened made him almost wish that he was the one leaning back against the counter. She was a very skilled kisser and that only made him wonder if her claim that she was very good in bed was true. Hell, who was he kidding? This was Bones, she didn't lie and she didn't embellish, of course she was probably very, very good.

If it were possible, which of course is wasn't, Brennan would have sworn that Booth's physique was making this kiss intoxicating. Of course his symmetrically pleasing features, strong musculature, and his alpha male persona made him a very desirable mate; but it seemed that there was more to it than that. She let out a sigh against his mouth and considered that this emotional component which she had previously avoided at nearly all cost was certainly playing a large part in the nervous swirling feeling she had in her abdominal region. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that she hadn't noticed Booth hoisting her up onto the counter.

Oh, this was definitely getting out of hand, somewhere in the back of his mind he thought maybe they should save this for later, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why. Well, he knew they had a case, but they were waiting for a call back from Katie Woods and surely it was still early enough that the phone wouldn't ring for a while. At least he hoped that was true. Especially since Bones had hooked her leg around his ass and was trying to pull him closer. And what the hell was she doing with her hands? One quick squinch with his eyes and he realized that the Queen of the Squints herself was unbuttoning her blouse. He began kissing along her jaw and realizing that one of them needed to put the brakes on a little if they were going to do what they were here for and apparently it was going to have to be him. He whispered in her ear. "Bones, don't think that I don't want to get you naked and show you what puts the special in Special Agent, but we should probably focus on the case a little."

She made no move to refasten the buttons on her blouse as she pulled back a little and looked at him quizzically. "You started it."

He snorted out a laugh. "Oh, no. That would be all you, baby." He couldn't hide his admiration for the glimpse her gaping blouse was affording him and he made a mental note that he was going to take his time and get to know every last bit of her, later.

"Don't call me baby." There was a hint of fire in her eyes, but the smile pulling at her mouth belied her protest. Now that she wasn't kissing him she could recall that she was the one who had said she wanted to kiss him. She still wanted to kiss him, all of him really, but she knew that they had work to do and the sooner they got that done, the sooner they could both take a little vacation and spend some time alone, away from computers and cell phones and dogs and neighbors.

"Look, baby." He smirked, a devilish twinkle in his eyes as he pulled himself back. "I'm going to go check in to see if they found anything in their search of the school last night and to see if they are even aware of this nephew that Paige mentioned." If he was in the other room he also might have a chance to actually regain some of his professional composure which had been completely blown in the few minutes that they had been making out.

"That sounds reasonable." Brennan let out a sigh and began to refasten the buttons on her blouse. "We do want to solve the case after all."

"Yes, we do." He resisted the urge to lean in and kiss her again before he winked and then went into the other room.

A chirping cell phone caused Cordelia's ears to perk up as Brennan slid down off the counter and reached for the phone in her pocket. She had to remind herself that she was undercover as she answered. "Kat Graham." She smiled as she glanced down at the dog. "Yes, we did. No, she's been no trouble at all." She crouched down and scratched the dog behind her ear. "My husband Drew and I would be happy to bring her by. It's no problem at all. We're new to the area and we're looking forward to getting to know some of the neighbors."


	14. Chapter 14

The front door of the modest home creaked open as the tires of the Subaru came to a crunching stop on the gravel driveway and Booth killed the ignition. Cordelia was excitedly bouncing around in the backseat at the sight of home.

Booth glanced over at Bones. "Let's just play this cool and see what happens. We really don't want her to catch wind that we're law enforcement."

"You can't actually catch wind, well except maybe in sail, but even then it isn't actually something that you can confine." Brennan blinked at him as she regarded his expression that told her that she'd missed whatever it was that he actually meant by his comment. "Yes, I can maintain my cover. I am Kat Graham and I am happily married to you and very excited about trying to have a baby." To emphasize that she really did understand, missed reference and all, she leaned in and kissed him, smiling as she pulled away and unfastened her seatbelt.

He couldn't wipe the grin off of his face as he opened the door and got out of the car to greet Katie Woods. Cordelia hadn't even waited for them to open the backdoor; she'd bounded from the backseat to the front and then darted out of the car and right over to Katie. Booth gestured towards the happy reunion. "Looks like we're at the right place."

"Thank you so much for bringing her back. I don't know what has gotten into her." Katie straightened up and extended her hand to greet them. "Katie Woods."

"I'm Drew Graham. This is my wife Kat." Booth's smile was friendly and charming as he slung his arm around his partner's shoulders and tugged her in a little closer.

Brennan shook Katie's hand too and offered a smile of her own. "Our next door neighbor said that your dog has run away before." From all appearances the dog looked perfectly happy at home and she couldn't immediately surmise a reason that would make Cordelia run away other than wanderlust.

"Oh, yes, that's true she has." Katie looked at Brennan quizzically and then a light of recognition dawned. "Oh, you're the couple that just moved in next to Paige." She let out a soft chuckle. "Yes, Cordy is familiar with the neighborhood. I suppose that's because Emma and I used to take her for walks there." Her expression fell at the mention of Emma's name.

"I'm so sorry…we, uh, heard about Emma from Paige." Booth wasn't about to mention that he was there to investigate whether she was involved in Emma's disappearance. "I have a little boy from before Kat and I were together and I think it would kill me if anything happened to him." It was a true statement. Seven months away from Parker in Afghanistan was way too long fighting someone else's war.

"I mean I keep hoping that they're going to find her and that she's okay, but it's been so long and everything is just falling apart." She sniffled and shook her head in disbelief that here she was about to spill her guts to two perfect strangers. "I'm sorry. I don't even know you." She wiped at her tears and forced a smile.

"Maybe the dog keeps running away because she's trying to figure out where Emma is." It was perfectly logical to Brennan that an animal that had such a strong bond with a young child would look earnestly for her. There had been many documented accounts of animals going long distances in search of their family only to find them days, weeks, or months later. Of course, since Cordelia kept running only a short distance away, that might not be the case here.

"Yes, I've thought about that too. I'm not so sure my husband agrees." Katie sniffled again. "I'm not sure our marriage is going to survive."

The door creaked again and a teenage boy who looked clean cut enough from the way he was dressed wandered out to see who had come up the driveway. He had an expression on his face that made it look like he was not just mad at the world, but the entire universe too. He shot Katie and accusatory look. "Who the hell are they, Aunt Kate?"

"They're just bringing Cordy back, Jason." She let out a tired sigh as she glanced over at her nephew. "And what did we say about the language?"

"Fuck you." He glared at her and stormed back into the house, not even bothering to attempt polite for the two strangers standing in the yard. "Fuck the damn dog."

"I am sorry for Jason's behavior." She cleared her throat as she continued, feeling a sense of relief as she found genuine kindness in the eyes of Drew and Kat Graham. "He's been staying with us for a while; things at his home are less than ideal. I think he's taken Emma's disappearance really hard, blames me for it really."

"Sounds like you're in a tough situation." Brennan considered that perhaps Paige had been onto something about suspecting that the nephew was a far more likely suspect than Katie. She couldn't be sure, but if Sweets were here, he would surely have some psychological opinion about where the boy's anger came from and whether he was likely to direct it at the young girl.

"Yes, I suppose I am." Katie smiled softly. "Look, I'm glad that you were able to bring Cordy back. I appreciate it."

"No problem." Booth smiled reassuringly. "And if she happens to run away again, at least we know where to return her."

"She's a good dog." Brennan meant it and she crouched down to give the dog a scratch behind the ears and a pat on the head.

"Yes, she is." Katie agreed.

"We should probably be going." Booth thought that if they stayed much longer it was going to start looking a little too out of the ordinary.

An idea had formed in Brennan's mind and she just jogged with it as she addressed Katie. "Perhaps I'm speaking out of turn, but if you ever want someone to talk to, Drew and I are very good listeners, and we like coffee." She continued even though she felt Booths finger enveloping her hand and giving it a squeeze. "We're on a sabbatical and other than trying to learn a little something about organic gardening and attempting to procreate, we have quite a bit of free time. We'd love to have you come over for a visit." She gave Booth's had a squeeze back and hoped that she hadn't just compromised the entire investigation because she was making an awkward attempt at being friendly.

Booth seemed to hold his breath as he forced a smile onto his face so that it seemed that he was completely supportive of his "wife's" idea.

Katie's eyes widened in surprise and then squeezed shut momentarily to blink back more tears. "I'd like that. Really, I would. I used to be pretty popular in town here and it seems that some of my friends don't believe me when I say that I have no idea what happened to Emma. Yes, I'd love to come for coffee."

Booth could have been bowled over with a feather at that point, but he didn't show it on the outside. He simply grinned. "Well you have Kat's cell number, so give us a call anytime. We're right next door to Paige, so we're not hard to find." Damn this case was going too well, and he hoped that he hadn't just jinxed it because he had formulated the thought.

"Nice to meet you." Katie smiled and waved and then ushered Cordy back into the house as the Grahams got in the Subaru and drove away.


	15. Chapter 15

"We've made amazing progress on this case." Brennan seemed genuinely pleased with how well they were doing as she glanced over at Booth. "Perhaps we should celebrate and go back to the house to engage in intercourse." Since part of the case was working under cover, she reasoned that maybe they should actually do some work under the covers. Okay, even she had to admit that her rationale was quite a stretch, but it didn't change the fact that she wanted Booth.

Booth coughed to keep from choking on the nothing he had in his mouth and gripped the steering wheel a little bit tighter. "Bones, I think we need to pace ourselves here. This case is going too well. While it would be nice to think that we're going to crack it in our first whole day here, if it were that easy the locals should have already solved it don't you think?" Oh, how he wanted to wrap things up and then get wrapped up with her for a very long time, but he wasn't naïve, his life just didn't run that smoothly.

Her brow furrowed and her lips spun into a frown as she considered his words. "I suppose you have a point. However, isn't it also possible that we are simply able to gain entry into the everyday lives of people because of our infiltration into the local culture which allows us to observe them undetected?"

"What are we, a Discovery Channel special?" He snorted out a laugh. "Bones, we're under cover because all other avenues of law enforcement investigation have come up with exactly nothing." Leave it to her to sound ultra squinty even if she was the sexiest women he knew.

"Do you think that Katie Woods is guilty?" She didn't want to trust her gut, but she was of the opinion that that woman didn't strike her as someone who could intentionally harm a child.

"What I _think_ is immaterial. However, my gut says she was telling us the truth. The nephew on the other hand…can't tell if he's just been dealt a really shitty hand and he's taking it out on the world, or if he's hiding something." Of course he'd mentioned him to one of the other agents this morning before he'd had the pleasure of seeing the boy in person and they were going to be taking a little closer look to find out exactly why the nephew was living there and if he was around the day that Emma disappeared.

"Your gut is usually a fairly good indicator, although not one hundred percent accurate." It was the closest she was going to get to telling him that she trusted his investigative instincts in the absence of hard evidence.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." He smirked at her and then lapsed into silence for a few beats before he carefully broached the subject that had been on his mind since earlier that morning. "Look, Bones, we need to talk about this little development between you and I."

She immediately felt a panic rising up and her eyes widened. "Are you having second thoughts? Perhaps you don't find me as sexually appealing as Hannah."

He shook his head in disbelief. "Since when do you jump to conclusions, Bones? And for the record, I find you _very_ sexually appealing." Did she miss the part about where he and Hannah had broken up because he was still very much hung up on Bones?

"I apologize for not basing my response to you on the evidence, however, I am finding that this new component to our relationship is fraught with irrational feelings that I am unable to fully categorize." She blinked at him hoping that he could understand her uncertainty and vulnerability in the situation.

"I understand. I'm a little nervous too. It's perfectly normal." He offered a soothing smile and reached over and gathered her hand in his. "I was just going to say that before we take the big plunge, we might want to make sure that we've got protection."

She pointed out the window as he drove. "There's a drug store there, surely they have a sufficient supply of condoms." And it was nice and close to the house as well, just in case they needed to rush back for more.

"With the way we've been telling everyone that we're anxiously trying to have a baby, we might want to make that purchase a bit further out of town, don't you think? The last thing we need is to run into Paige while I'm buying the jumbo pack of condoms." He gave her one of those looks and then winked as they pulled into their driveway.

"Jumbo, huh?" She was rather impressed. She knew that he was proportioned well enough to please any woman, but now she was definitely looking forward to gaining personal knowledge.

"Not the size, Bones. Sheesh!" He fidgeted uncomfortably now that all attention was on his crotch. "The amount. I'm talking about the amount. Jumbo as in the economy pack." Why the hell were they having this conversation anyway? Couldn't he have just run off and gotten the damn things himself without turning this into a three ring circus in the car?

"Oh, right." She drew out that last word conspiratorially. Yes, she was definitely looking forward to working her way through that jumbo box with him, and the sooner the better.

"Can we just get back to the case for now?" Booth was sure that any more talk about sex between them was going to result in actual sex between them and they couldn't afford the issue of a child clouding the issue before they had established that they were solid as a couple. For himself, he was sure that she was the only woman for him for the rest of his life, but he needed to make sure that she was as committed to this as he was, what with this change in their status not even twenty-four hours old.

"The case. Of course." They were working after all and they did have a case to solve. Brennan was the master of compartmentalization and she easily shifted cogs. "Have they looked into the father as a suspect? Katie did indicate that she thought her marriage was in jeopardy."

"Yes, he's been investigated." He secured the parking brake and turned off the engine. "Eric Woods wasn't even in town the day that Emma disappeared. That's why so much focus has been placed on Katie."

"That is certainly logical." She nodded and unfastened her seatbelt. "Did they ever tell you if they found anything compelling at the school last night?" She suspected after all of this time that any evidence that might have initially been found and collected for analysis had been severely compromised.

"I was going to check on that." He let out a sigh and opened his door. "I also asked for a list of all school employees, parents, or contractors that might have been there that day. We can let the squint squad see if they can come up with anything that normal people might have missed."

"I'm sure they will." She knew that he meant it as a compliment to her team, but his tone was clearly annoyed, most likely at the bumbling investigators who had handled the case up to this point. She was confident that since they were on the job that they would find what others had missed.


	16. Chapter 16

A call to Agent Walter Lewis in the Seattle field office confirmed what Booth and Brennan had already suspected. Any trace evidence that might have been found right after Emma's disappearance had likely been not just compromised, but completely destroyed by the janitorial and maintenance crews that during the course of their regular activities of restoring the school to pristine condition over the summer had stripped and refinished floors, painted walls, and cleaned and scraped sidewalks. While a school like that might seem like every parents dream, it was now every investigators worst nightmare.

"At least we have a list of all school employees and the parents who were supposed to be there during the science fair." Booth was trying to find a bright spot in grand scheme of things as they hunkered down in the small office to try and get some case related things done. "Between my guys and the squint squad, I'm sure we should be able to narrow things down a little." As of right now, Agent Lewis who was officially in charge of the investigation was looking into the background of Katie Woods' nephew Jason to see if there were any red flags that might suggest him as a viable suspect. If he was a minor, it was going to make things a little more difficult.

"One would assume that all of those individuals would have already been investigated." Brennan frowned as she emailed the list to Cam with the specifics of what Booth wanted them to look for.

"They were focusing on the last person they knew had seen Emma. Right or wrong, it's what law enforcement does. I think they thought since she wasn't actually Emma's mother that it gave her more of a motive." Not that he necessarily agreed. If it turned out that she wasn't involved, all of the focus on Katie Woods had given whoever was responsible for Emma's disappearance plenty of time to cover their tracks, hide a body, or worse, at least from a psychological perspective – sell her into sex trafficking. Seattle was a huge hub for trafficking people – either smuggled in illegally or children who had been kidnapped for the purpose of prostituting them around the country. He almost hoped for Emma's sake that she hadn't suffered that kind of fate, while it might bring her back to family the scars her mind would bear would take years, if not a lifetime to recover from.

"They should have waited until there was enough compelling evidence to narrow their focus down to one person." She knew that he agreed; that was why they were here now. The lack of evidence though was less than encouraging. "Valuable time has been lost. What if we don't find her?"

He let out a sigh as he rubbed the nape of his neck and swiveled his chair to face her. "Bones, we'll do our best."

"What if our best isn't good enough?" She looked into his eyes, the intensity of her question backed up by her gaze.

"Let's not think about that right now." Booth offered a soft smile. "We only got here yesterday. You of all people should know that crimes don't get solved neatly in a sixty-minute time slot like they do on TV."

"I've never understood why people pay into that. Logically, many laboratory tests take far longer to get results. DNA coding for example is a rather involved process. The results don't just spout out in a few minutes." This was one of many reasons that she didn't make time to watch television.

He wasn't even going to correct her missed colloquialism. "I know. I work with you and the squints. I know things take time. So we need to give this some time too. We just need to work any angles that we know of to see if we can uncover more information." And when they were done working angles, well they had time to get to know each other at that level that he'd been dreaming about for years. Once he made a trip to the drug store in some other town that is.

"Like I did with Katie?" Brennan's smile was slightly lopsided as if she hadn't quite decided whether to smirk or smile, but her eyes didn't waver from his.

"Yes, like you did with Katie." His pride in the way she'd just followed her gut was evident in his voice and in his smile. "You did a really great job, Bones." He leaned towards her, his fingers slipping into her hair as he studied her. "You've said that I'm the heart person and that you're the brain person, but you have a lot of heart you know that."

She could feel his breath fanning out against her face and reached up and softly wrapped her fingers around his wrist. "Your frontal lobe is very well developed." He was naturally smart in ways that she just wasn't and she admired him for it. It was one of the things that made this partnership of theirs so balanced.

"Are you saying that I'm smart?" He winked at her and let out a soft chuckle. Having Bones tell you that you were smart was almost better than having her tell you that she thought you were symmetrically pleasing.

She rolled her eyes and let out a soft chuckle of her own. "You know you are. I only work with the best you know." Of course now she wasn't just his work partner and they were drifting into new territory and it scared and excited her all at once.

"And I'm the best then?" Sometimes she was seriously good for his ego, but he also knew that she was just as good at putting his ego in check in the next beat.

She nodded, leaning in a little closer, her voice a little breathy. "Although your neurotransmitters must be slowing in their responses or you would already be kissing me." She didn't wait for his response; she simply leaned in and closed the distance between them.

Booth loved the way she sighed against his mouth, the way her fingers mapped a trail from his wrist to his chest and then to the nape of his neck before they broke off the kiss, both of them smiling ridiculously wide. "What if I was waiting for you to kiss me?" He smirked at her.

"I appreciate the consideration, however, I assure you that given our circumstances currently, I believe we should take full advantage of the opportunity that our cover provides to engage in behavior appropriate for a happy couple." She grinned conspiratorially and leaned towards him again.

He mumbled against her mouth. "Very squinty, but very sexy." Against his better judgement he maneuvered himself until he could tug at her to come sit on his lap. He hadn't gotten to the drug store yet, but maybe he was safe with some heavy duty making out. He had been waiting for this opportunity for years, and besides, she was right about the fact that they needed to be authentic in their cover story. Not that anyone could actually see them where they were tucked away in the office.

It seemed that they'd hardly started kissing when the insistent chirping of a cell phone sounded, paused, and then sounded again as if someone was calling repeatedly and unwilling to leave a message. Brennan managed to grope for it and glance at the caller ID before she answered it a little breathless. "Brennan."

"_Sweetie, Cam just gave us the list, but I wanted to check and see how things were going." _Angela's prying eyes were evident in her voice.

"We've made some progress on the case, but so far we have no concrete evidence, which is why we are still undercover." It was perfectly logical to her that once they had some actual evidence they could send it to the Jeffersonian. Surely Angela would know that.

Booth was trying to figure out how to extricate himself so that Angela had no idea what was going on. Not that he didn't want to shout it from the mountain tops, but really he'd prefer to enjoy this for a while before they became the subject around the Jeffersonian water coolers, or worse - gossip around the FBI bullpen.

"_So how is the undercover work with Booth going?" _Angela's tone implied she hoped that there were juicy details and if there were she wanted Brennan to share them immediately.

"Just like any other undercover operation." She couldn't hide her smile as she looked at him. This was unlike any undercover operation they'd ever been and she was very much looking forward to staying undercover for at least a little while longer.

"_Okay, Sweetie, what is really going on?" _ Angela wasn't buying it. There was something off, or maybe turned on, and she could just tell, Brennan was a terrible liar.

"We're working a case, we'll let you know if there is anything new as soon as we know it." Brennan was sure that she couldn't lie to Angela while she was sitting on Booth's lap, and so she decided the next best thing was to end the call. "I need to go."

Booth snorted out a chuckle as he watched her phone slide across the desk. "You do know that now she's going to know something's up." He looked thoroughly amused at the idea that Angela was on the other side of the country with her panties in a twist over not knowing every minute detail of what was happening between him and Bones.

"No she won't." Brennan was sure that now that their interruption had been taken care of that they could go back to what they were doing before.

The phone chirped again.

"See, she's not going to give up until you tell her what's going on. I think this is my cue to run off to the drug store and let you two have some girl talk." He eased her off his lap as she reached for the phone.

"What should I tell her?" They hadn't really talked about this, but she wanted to make sure she didn't share too much.

He leaned in and pressed a kiss against her cheek. "Whatever you want. Just make sure you let me know what it is when I get back."

She felt herself smiling as she watched him leave the room and she answered the phone. "Brennan."


	17. Chapter 17

"You two are gonna have a hard time making a baby if you insist on using those." Paige had an amused smirk on her face as she regarded the startled expression on her neighbor's face. "Course maybe you're not as anxious to start a family as you say you are." She hadn't been the queen of the neighborhood busybodies for twenty years for nothing. She simply stood there with an eyebrow quirked in the man's direction.

Booth felt like a deer in the headlights as he plopped the jumbo box into the shopping basket. Clearly in his impatience to stop at the drugstore down the street instead of making an effort to at least go across town, he'd run into his worst fear and potentially had blown his cover. "I'm sure you know how it is, one minute you are and one minute you aren't." He only hoped she bought it as he poured on one of his best charm smiles.

"Those damn hormones." She gave him a knowing wink. "I'm glad that's all behind me now. All I have to worry about is the occasional tropical heat wave if you know what I mean." She could tell that the Grahams were a couple deeply in love and that even if there was a slight hesitation in this baby making department, she was sure it was only because they wanted to enjoy their newlywed bliss for as long as possible.

He looked slightly confused for a moment and then slightly uncomfortable before he cleared his throat and gestured towards a random aisle. "I should probably pick up the rest of our shopping list."

"I am well acquainted with the store if you need a little help." She smiled broadly at him.

Booth stammered. "Uh, no, that's okay." He cleared his throat and then leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. "I actually forgot the list, but I don't want Kat to know that. So I'm just going to wander around a little and see if I can remember what's on it." It was a complete bald face lie, but he wasn't about to let Paige in on the secret. As it was, he was just glad she'd bought his line of bull about the giant box of condoms that seemed to be screaming from his basket.

"Typical husband." Paige winked at him. "Well I'll see you later then, Drew." She wandered off towards the checkout line leaving her neighbor standing in the middle of the family planning section of the drug store.

Booth kept one eye on the front of the store where Paige seemed more than content to chat up everyone she ran into as he wandered a bit aimlessly plucking an item here and there just to make it seem like he really had some shopping to do. Once he saw Paige leave, he made his way up to the check out counter, and only then did he notice what it was in his basket in addition to the big box of condoms – lip gloss, peppermint cocoa, chocolate graham cracker cookies, marshmallows, a bubbling foot soak, Superman band-aids, a couple of bottles of water, tile and grout cleaner, a package of heavy duty sponges, breath mints, and a Barry White compilation CD. He wasn't sure if it looked more like he wanted to clean house, make s'mores, or if he was planning on seducing his woman.

"Do you want to purchase a reusable bag, sir?" The cashier's nametag read 'Karen' and she appeared to be in her late thirties and could tell that this man wasn't familiar with the town's greening policy of phasing out single use shopping bags.

"Uh, sure." Bones would be proud of him that he'd thought to be so environmentally sensitive. Of course he wasn't sure what she was going to think about all of the extra things he'd bought just to make it seem that he wasn't at the drug store only to buy the one big glaring item in his basket.

"You new in the area?" Karen queried him as she continued to ring up his purchases. Obviously from the ring on his left hand and the extra large box of condoms he was already taken, but she could certainly appreciate how attractive he was. Whoever she was, she certainly hoped the woman knew how lucky she was – not that she was in the market for a man, her Joey was as good as they came, but that didn't mean that she couldn't appreciate an attractive man when she saw one.

"Yeah, I'm Drew Graham. My wife Kat and I just moved into the neighborhood." He hooked his thumb in the general direction of where he thought the street was and smiled.

Karen nodded knowingly. "You must be the new folks that moved in next door to Paige." It had been one of the few houses available in the historic town that were actually _in_ the neighborhood.

"She must know everyone in town." Booth let out a soft chuckle. He wasn't sure if having Paige as a next door neighbor was going to be a blessing or a curse in not only solving the case, but in advancing his relationship with Bones.

"Just about." Karen laughed as well. "That'll be forty-two twenty-three." She placed the items in the reusable bag emblazoned with the drug store's logo and a smiling evergreen tree as he swiped his credit card through the reader.

"Thanks." Booth realized too late that there was no way he was going to be able to expense any of the items in the bag that Karen was packing up and he was going to catch hell from accounting when they saw that he had purchased not just condoms but a jumbo pack at that on his FBI issued credit card. He only hoped that Karen didn't notice that the name on the card didn't match up with the name that he'd given her.

"You and your wife have kids?" Karen glanced up at him as she waited for him to use the electronic signature feature of the reader so she could complete his purchase.

"Uh, no, not yet." His mind jumped to the Superman band-aids she had just dropped into the bag. "Not together that is. I have a son, but he lives on the East Coast. We're looking forward to having him come out for a visit soon."

"Oh, that's great." She smiled genuinely as she tore the receipt from the register and handed it to him without even glancing at it. "Me and my husband Joey have three girls, triplets actually. They're thirteen."

"Ah, Parker is ten." Booth shoved the credit card and the receipt gratefully into his wallet, put it in his back pocket and gathered up the bag with his purchases.

"My husband would be envious." Karen chuckled. "He wanted a boy to play ball with, but he loves those girls. I just pity the boys when they start asking my girls on dates. I think my husband is going to want to run a background check on them."

"I'd probably want to do the same thing." Truth was, he'd done that enough to Bones. "Well have a nice day, Karen." The sooner he got out of the store, the sooner he could get back to Bones to find out exactly what she'd told Angela about them, and the sooner maybe they could enjoy a little afternoon delight while the rest of the town was working the day away. It seemed like a perfectly great plan to him. In fact, he was calculating in his mind just how much time they had as he climbed in the car and drove back down the street towards their temporary home.

As he pulled into the driveway, the sight of Bones standing out in the yard talking to Chelsea Warren who they had met at the Farmer's Market the day before put his plans on immediate hold. She looked as if she'd been out for a run and had run into Bones on the way. He grabbed the bag as he climbed out of the car and tried to appear casual as he made his way over to where the two ladies were standing.

Brennan smiled at him gratefully as he approached. "Drew, Chelsea has invited us over for dinner tonight. Isn't that great?" She hoped that she sounded like she thought it was a great idea. Right at the moment she was considering just how long this dinner might delay what they'd both obviously wanted earlier.

"Yes, that is great." Booth reached out and shook Chelsea's hand. "We appreciate the invitation, what with being new in town and all." And she was a member of the yard share group, dinner with the Warren's might just give them a little bit more information to help solve the case."

Chelsea smiled a little too brightly, as if she'd been a cheerleader in another life. "Okay then, Dan and I will expect you at seven."

"We'll be there." Booth assured her as she waved and then resumed her run down the street and around the block.

Brennan glanced at the size of the bag and raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were just getting condoms or did you buy every one in the store?" Clearly he had bought a lot more.

"Uh, I ran into Paige so I had to buy some other stuff too." He didn't mention the part about how she'd noticed exactly what he was buying and decided to change the subject as they walked back into the house. "What did you tell Angela?"

She turned and looked at him with the softest of smiles. "I told her that what is between you and I is ours."


	18. Chapter 18

Almost as soon as they walked through the front door, Booth found himself being pulled by his Cocky belt buckle very insistently through the living room and down the hallway. His hands went up in surrender, with the shopping bag dangling from one hand as he looked at her with a slightly confused expression. "Whoa, Bones, what are you doing?"

She looked at him as if he had just announced that there were actually two hundred and seven bones in the body. "I'm trying to have intercourse with you." Surely he should know by now how much she wanted him. She was sure she had been quite clear on the matter.

He snorted out a laugh and glanced at the bag from the store and then gestured towards the living room. "Do you think that I could at least go close the front door and put this down first?" He was more than a little turned on by how anxious she was to get things going, but he wanted to make sure they had some privacy.

She abruptly let go of his belt and nodded matter of factly. "Of course. It would be far better to ensure we have no visitors." A delighted smirk flitted across her face as she watched him look at her for a long moment before he turned around and headed back out into the living room. The sound of the door shutting firmly made her heart thud with anticipation.

Booth found her standing right where he'd left her in the middle of the hallway, he smiled softly at her with his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. As much as he wanted her, the anticipation that _this_ was the moment had him rooted to the spot. Somehow he'd imagined that he'd wine and dine her first, but really who was he kidding? This was Bones and nothing to do with them had ever been done conventionally. His smile twitched into a grin. "Hi."

She felt a fluttering deep down inside and she couldn't help but smile at him in return. "Hi." She stood there for a long moment studying him and then with all of her self restraint completely gone, she launched herself at him, causing him to stumbled as he caught her and then spin just a little bit until she felt her back coming to rest up against the wall.

Clearly the time for talking seemed to be over and Seeley Booth wasn't about to argue the point. He was too busy returning the fiery kisses of one Dr. Temperance Brennan, who he was almost absolutely certain was an ancient siren in disguise. Perhaps it was the kisses, perhaps it was the feel of her hands fisting his shirt, or maybe it was the feel of her legs cinching around him as he had her pressed up against the wall. He was so glad he'd made that trip to the drug store because he wasn't at all interested in stopping. At thought of his trip to the drug store he froze and forced himself to yank his lips from hers.

Brennan blinked her eyes in confusion. "Why did you stop?" She knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him, that much was evident by the growing bulge in his jeans.

He really didn't want to stop, but if he didn't they might both regret it later. "I left the condoms in the living room." In all of the excitement of knowing this was the moment and needing to make sure the front door was closed, he had completely forgotten to make sure he grabbed the one thing that had kept them from doing this earlier.

"Oh." She blinked again. That was a rational reason to stop, not that she was feeling especially rational at that moment. Her heart had been shoved into overdrive and her hormones were marching along quite nicely right behind it ready to run ahead at a moments notice.

He hadn't made a move to let go of her, but if he didn't he wasn't going to be able get the damn condoms either. He let out a frustrated groan and looked into her eyes. "I'll be right back." He still hadn't moved, maybe it had to do with the sexy scientist hanging onto him. "You're going to have to let go first."

"But what if I don't want to let go?" It was irrational and she knew it, but it didn't mean that it wasn't true.

He let out a frustrated chuckle. "Just work with me here, Bones." He felt her legs lose their grip on him and he stepped away, letting out a deep breath. "I'll just run in there and grab them and maybe you can just go find the bed." The closer they were to the bed the sooner they were going to be able to enjoy what they'd both been wanting for years. He did not want to make love to her for the first time up against the wall in the hallway.

"That sounds fairly reasonable." Her breathy tone said something completely different, but maybe that was just her libido screaming in frustration as she leaned back against the wall and stared at Booth.

He was having difficulty making his feet move. He squinched his eyes shut and let out a deep breath before he opened them again to find that Bones looked sexier than he remembered. "I'm just going to go there." He pointed, forgetting the name of the room he was supposed to go to. "And you go there." He pointed again the opposite way. "And then I'll be there."

She stared at him.

"Because the sooner we do, the sooner we can." He stared right back and then in the next instant he was racing towards the living room and that damn bag he'd tossed somewhere on the floor.

"Okay." She managed the words as he disappeared into the living room. It was a good plan and she was definitely in agreement as she turned and headed towards the bedroom.

By the time Booth made his way back down the hallway and rounded the corner into the bedroom with a fistful of the square foil packets, he found Bones standing there next to the bed in her button up shirt and not a whole lot else. He just stood there and stared. "You are so beautiful." He was sure that he was going to remember this moment forever.

She smiled at him, her eyes glancing over his body. "You're a little overdressed." Her confidence had returned and all she wanted to do was get that Cocky belt buckle off of him and see exactly what it was hiding.

He grinned at her, so excited that they had finally found their moment and that they were about to seize it for all it was worth. "I think that can be arranged." He stripped his shirt off and stepped towards the bed as he unfastened his jeans and shucked them off until he was standing in front of her in nothing but his boxers and a wild pair of striped socks.

She smirked and reached out to touch his chest, her finger splaying out against the firm muscles. She looked into his eyes, finding that she wanted to get completely lost in them, completely lost in him. "I wanted to take care of that belt buckle." If she was being honest, she had been thinking of all the ways she could get him out of it since she'd been able to collect it and the rest of his clothes as evidence.

He smirked right back, his arms encircling her waist. He was the luckiest man alive. He had Bones in his arms and she wanted him. Him! "Next time, it's all yours. I promise." Well, at least he'd try and keep his promise. Somehow he didn't think she'd mind if he didn't.

She glanced down in the direction of his feet and then quirked an eyebrow at him. "You're not having intercourse with me with those socks on are you?" She really didn't care what he left on as long as he showed her just how possible it was to break the laws of physics, as long as they were together when it happened.

"Watch me." He grinned wildly at her and then tumbled with her onto the bed and silenced her with a searing kiss.


	19. Chapter 19

"Wow." Seeley Booth was having difficulty forming a complete sentence, but it didn't seem to matter because the one word that he kept repeating seemed most appropriate given the amazing circumstances that he was currently in. He laughed in disbelief that this had finally happened as he stared up at the ceiling. "Wow. Wow. Wow."

Brennan let out a sigh and smiled as she glanced over at him. "Yes, you were very wow too." They hadn't broken the laws of physics but she was now a believer that with a little practice it would be entirely possible and she couldn't wait to try again. She was sure that if she could be swayed about something as monumental as one of the laws of science being altered that perhaps there were other things that Booth claimed that she ought to give a little credence to as well.

"Wow." His breathing rate was starting to approach normal, but his smile certainly hadn't abated. "Wow." He was on the verge of giddy.

"You said that, several times actually." Her pleased smirk was evident in her voice and as she rolled towards him, sheets tangled around their bodies, she slid her hand across his chest thinking that perhaps they had more than enough time to try that again. It was still relatively early and while they had plans for dinner, she was unaware of anything else that would require them to leave this bed for the rest of the day, except perhaps the need to eat a little lunch.

Somehow the feel of her hand against his chest caused his ability to form more than a three letter sentence to return. As he turned his head to take her in, he couldn't help but smile a bit wider. "You're the perfect woman." He believed that she was the perfect woman for him with absolute certainty.

She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Objectively, I don't believe that it is possible for a human to be perfect. There are too many variables to consider." She smiled at just how pleased he seemed to be by this new development between them and she had to concur that the experience had been far better than any of the fantasies she'd entertained.

Booth snickered as he considered just how much more perfect her squinty comment made her. "No, Bones, you _are_ perfect. You're a genius, you're sexy, and you are amazing in bed." And yet, he was sure that his words were still a complete understatement. Or maybe it was just because she was Bones and she was naked under the covers with him and she was acting as if she wanted to do it all over again. Something that he was more than okay with. His brain was still screaming a marquee scroll of the word 'wow'.

"Ah, well if that is the criteria that you're using, then I would have to conclude that you're perfect also." She had been rather impressed with his musculature as well as his skill. Clearly they had perfect sexual compatibility and she was anxious to collect more data to quantify that her initial assessment was correct.

"You know, flattery like that might just get you lucky again." He grinned as he rolled to face her, his fingers reaching over to tuck her hair behind her ear. The fact that he could touch her like this, that they could be like this was still blowing his mind.

"I don't believe in luck." Her smirk clearly conveyed that she knew exactly what kind of lucky he was talking about and _that_ she most certainly _did_ believe in.

"I guess I'll have to show you a little evidence to the contrary." He leaned in close until his lips were just a hairs breadth from hers. If she needed evidence, well he was more than ready to provide her with evidence. He snickered inside, as if the evidence he'd just showed her wasn't proof enough.

"Not until you take your socks off." She was temporarily sated and while she was very interested in engaging in another round of very satisfying intercourse with him, the idea that he still had those ridiculous socks on made her stand her ground. Although with his bare chest staring at her, she found that her resolve was flickering. Socks or not, Seeley Booth was a very sexy man.

"They're my lucky socks." He mumbled against her mouth, surprised to find her pushing against his chest. "What?" He looked confused as he took in her stern expression.

"They're going to become your unlucky socks if you don't take them off." She made a move to pull the sheet around herself and roll out of bed.

Booth held on tightly to the sheet, he was not going to let it or her get very far if he could help it. "Whoa, Bones." He was no prude, but he didn't exactly want to get left laying there all starko on the bed, at least without her. If she wanted him to take the damn socks, off, the socks were gone. He had only left them on before because she'd dared him, well it was sort of like a dare anyway and back at that moment their priorities had been elsewhere.

She raised her eyebrow at him again trying to look as serious as possible. "No more socks or no more sex." She hoped that he didn't intend to wear socks every time they had sex, and she wondered if this was something he had done with other women he'd been with in his life.

"Okay, fine. I'll get rid of the socks." He was doing his best to toe the socks off with some difficulty, finally resorting to ducking under the sheet to pull them off and come up with them as if he'd just been deep sea diving. "See, no socks." He grinned as he tossed them as far away from the bed as possible. Now that his socks were gone, they could focus on more important things, really fun naked things.

As Brennan watched their trajectory and took note of where they landed, her face blanched. "Booth." She pointed across the room to where he'd thrown his socks.

"What?" Okay, he'd taken the damn socks off, what else did she want? It wasn't like he had anything else on besides the sheet.

She glanced at him, a hint of worry on her face. "I think we might have forgotten something." She was trying to frame it gently, but the evidence seemed to suggest that she was correct. In all of their haste of falling into bed together, they'd made one glaring omission.

He followed her line of sight, trying to figure out what in the hell he could have forgotten, it wasn't like it was his first time having sex. As his eyes landed on where his socks had ended their flight across the room, the fistful of the packets of condoms that he'd gone to all the trouble of nearly breaking their cover for at the pharmacy lay there mocking him completely unopened. He glanced at Bones, his eyes wide with the same hint of worry as he mumbled not so softly under his breath. "Oh, shit."


	20. Chapter 20

"Okay, rationally speaking, it is highly unlikely that a single sexual encounter would result in the production of a progeny. And given the current timeline of my cycle, I would conclude that the lack of condom usage is not a reason to worry." Temperance Brennan was nothing if not rational. Booth had seemed exceptionally worried about making sure that they were sufficiently protected and so it hadn't occurred to her until just then that all of this precaution wasn't really necessary at all. "And I'm actually on the pill."

"What?" Booth's eyebrows shot up in disbelief as he looked over at her. "Why didn't you say anything before?" He could have saved himself the trip to the drugstore and the risk he'd taken of almost blowing their cover too.

She blinked at him and hugged the sheet closely. "I forgot." It was true, in all of the excitement and unfamiliar feelings running rampant she had let that little nugget of truth escape her attention. "I only recently resumed taking them, and it has not yet reached its maximum effectiveness, so it is logical that I would encourage another source of protection." Although, she had to admit that the idea of maybe somewhere in that thirty, forty, or fifty years he wanted with her that conceiving a child together held more than just some appeal for her.

"Oh." He was no longer at all worried about that damn box and those unopened packets scattered on the floor, but he did find it odd that Bones would forget something so important. Could it be that this whole shift between them was affecting her as deeply as it was affecting him? He felt his heart flip in his chest.

"So we should stop worrying about the oversight and resume trying to engage in intercourse." She offered him a sultry smile, feeling a silly that she - a certifiable genius - had forgotten something so important.

He was still a little dumbfounded, but it didn't take him long at all to respond to her. "Making love, Bones, it's making love. If you still are a little unclear about the concept, maybe we need to take care of that." He leaned in and kissed her, long and deep.

She could definitely get used to this and she mumbled against his mouth. "Okay, making love it is." The rush of endorphins from being with him was something she was developing an addiction to.

This newness of being able to touch each other freely had definitely not worn off and with smiles and a few giggles and deep, deep sighs they began to get to know each other all over again. It seemed that the day had plenty of time to just languish in bed without a care in the world.

At least until the chirp of a cellphone sounded somewhere in the trail of clothing on the floor. The reality that they were supposed to be working on a case in the midst of being undercover, not just under covers which had become their more immediate focus.

Booth grunted. "Can we not get a break here?" Why couldn't he just enjoy some sweet infinite bliss with the woman of his dreams. Once was just not enough and he had barely started on number two. He nearly growled as it chirped again.

As much as she wanted to ignore it, they had tasked quite a few people with things that they expected calls back from and more than likely this was going to be the first of many calls. "You'd better answer it. We are supposed to be on a case after all." And their current circumstance just so happened to fit in quite well with their cover story. At least if she was trying to rationalize it.

He rolled away from Bones and reached off the bed, fumbling around until he found the the still ringing phone. His tone as he answered was more than a little gruff. "Booth."

"Agent Booth?" Wendell Bray suddenly wished that Cam had made the call herself instead of assigning him to do it since she had a meeting she had to attend. Clearly the FBI agent had been interrupted in the middle of something important and he hoped that he wouldn't hold it against him.

Of all the times for the squints to interrupt, they had to do it now. He glanced over at Bones and let out a sigh. "Yeah, Wendell."

"Did I get you at a bad time? Cam asked me to call you and Dr. Brennan about the list of school employees." Something didn't sound quite right, but the information was important.

He resigned himself to having a conference call in the buff. "Let me put you on speaker so Bones can hear too." He whispered loudly as he clicked on the speaker phone. "The squints have impeccable timing."

"Hello, Mr. Bray." Brennan's voice sounded a bit forced, but perhaps that had something to do with the fact that she was very distracted by the naked man laying next to her under the sheets. She was only glad the the cell phone Booth held in his hand didn't have a video feed.

"Dr. Brennan. Agent Booth." Wendell continued sounding a little unsure. "If this isn't a good time." In the back of his mind the thought occurred to him that they sounded like they were taking this undercover assignment very seriously, but then he shook the thought right out and cleared his throat.

"It's a fine time." Booth's tone clearly said that it was less than ideal, but the sooner they got Wendell of the phone the sooner he and Bones could get back to what was important.

"Okay." Wendell drew out the word and then decided that as weird as this felt, he was just going to do his job and give them the information. "Cam noticed on the list of school employees that the the head of the maintenance crew is married to one of the women in that yard share group that you're trying to get into."

"Who is it?" Booth sounded impatient. With any luck they would be able to use the connections they'd already made to get an inside angle on this guy.

"A guy by the name of Dan Warren." Wendell glanced at the file that Cam had given him.

"Chelsea Warren's husband." Brennan interjected and glanced over at Booth with an eyebrow raised at just how convenient this was all becoming. "We're having dinner with them tonight."

Wendell sounded a little surprised. "Gee, you guys are a little psychic."

"There is no scientific evidence to suggest that psychics have any actual skill." Avalon Harmonia aside, Brennan was very skeptical of anyone who claimed to be able to see into the future.

"It's just an expression, Bones." Now that they had a name, Booth wanted more information. "Any reason that his name stood out other than the connection with his wife?"

"Not sure, but he had more access to the school than anyone else according to the records, and he was there the day that Emma disappeared, but it doesn't seem that anyone really interviewed him." Wendell hoped that this was a real lead and not just a dead end.

"Thank you, Mr. Bray." Brennan was satisfied that they had something to go on and an opportunity to explore it. Now she just wanted to end the call so she and Booth could do a little more exploring and get some serious satisfaction. Her had slid over across Booth's chest and then very purposely downward.

"Yeah, Wendell, thanks." Booth fumbled with the phone as Bones' intent became very clear. He hoped that he'd managed to hit the end button before he tossed the phone and succumbed to the ministrations of his sexy partner.

Wendell's eyes widened at the sounds coming through the phone and then he let out a chuckle as he clicked it off, shaking his head and thinking to himself, what do you know, they finally caught a clue and got together.


	21. Chapter 21

Dan and Chelsea Warren's home was a modest bungalow, probably built during the nineteen twenties when the town of Sterling had experienced its housing boom. The yard was well maintained and a large garden could be seen in the back from the sidewalk. Booth glanced over at Brennan as he pulled the Subaru up in front of the house and killed the engine. There were a few things he wanted to discuss before they went inside for their dinner invitation. "This guy may be perfectly innocent, so just follow my lead and let me feel him out, okay."

"So you would prefer that I work on the girl bondage then." She would do her best, even if she didn't feel like she naturally connected over what most women did. At least they could discuss gardening.

"Bonding, Bones, it's bonding. Bondage is quite a bit different." And he didn't even want to get into the nitty gritty details of what that might entail.

"Right, bonding." She smirked at him and then leaned in for a soft kiss before she unbuckled her seat belt.

Their hands came together like a gravitational pull as they made their way up the walkway. By all appearances, they were just the new couple in town enjoying a nice dinner invitation to get to know some of the neighbors. Booth was taking in as many minute details as he could to get a feel for these two before they went inside and somehow he knew that Bones' brain was churning along at lightning speed as well.

The soft knock had barely registered on the door when a smiling Chelsea Warren eagerly pulled it open and gestured for them to come inside. "Kat and Drew, it's so good to see you." She said it as if she hadn't seen them just earlier that day. "C'mon in, Dan is just trying to wrangle the boys into washing their hands so we can get them to the table."

Booth glanced around the modest living room and his mouth couldn't help but twitch up into a smile at the evidence of little boys living there. He felt a pang in his heart for being away from Parker again and made a mental note to call him in the morning since he would already in bed by the time he and Bones headed back to the house given the time zone difference. "Nice house."

"Thanks, Dan spent so much time renovating it back to its original character, for a while I thought he was never going to finish." Chelsea gestured towards the couch. "I just need to finish up a couple of things in the kitchen, why don't you make yourselves at home and I'll be right back."

"Sure, thanks." Brennan smiled and found herself drifting towards a built in bookshelf unit that flanked the fireplace while Booth settled himself on the couch. There was an array of photos on display and she found herself studying each one. There was something about family photos that made her wonder if her life would have turned out any differently if her parents hadn't left her and Russ behind. Not that she wanted to be anything other than what she'd become, but she still wondered.

"Whatcha doing there, honey?" He hoped that she didn't arouse suspicion by appearing to be too nosey.

She glanced up and smiled. "They have a nice looking family." She didn't bother to correct his use of the endearment as she looked back at the pictures and noticed something that she thought Booth would find very relevant to their case, but before she could say anything, Chelsea returned to the living room with two boys charging right past her.

"Cooper and Carter, is that anyway to behave when we have guests?" Chelsea stood there with her hands on her hips with a single raised brow that seemed to grab onto her boys and make them stop in their tracks.

"Sorry, mom." The slightly taller of the two spoke for both of them as he elbowed his brother. "Carter was gonna trip me."

"No I wasn't, you were gonna trip me." A furrowed brow glowered back at Cooper.

"Boys, behave." Her tone left no room for argument and then she turned her sweet smile back on and turned towards their guests. "These are my boys Cooper and Carter. Boys, these are some new neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Graham."

"Hi." Carter spoke up trying to look as grown up and responsible as possible lest he find himself being sent to his room for picking a fight with his brother.

"Hello." Booth smiled warmly, he guessed that the boys were a little younger than Parker and again he found himself missing his son again.

Brennan waved with a smile of her own. "Nice to meet you."

A well built sandy haired man sauntered in not all that surprised to see his wife chastising the boys. "You must be Drew and Kat. I'm Dan. Nice to meet you both." He smiled warmly as he walked over and shook Booth's hand as he stood up and he smiled a little too nicely as he shook Brennan's.

"Honey, did you get the wine from the fridge?" Chelsea didn't miss the look her husband gave Kat and she shot him a look that clearly said 'look but don't touch'.

"Sure, it's on the table." Dan flashed her smile and then gestured to all of them. "I think we're ready for dinner if you all want to make your way into the dining room." He hung back a little as if he had something on his mind that he wanted a little time alone with.

"Well, I hope you like fish. I figured since you're from the East Coast that you don't get fresh Pacific Sockeye Salmon. The grocery store here in town gets fresh fish everyday." Chelsea seemed pleased with herself that she was going to introduce her guests to one of the benefits of Pacific Northwest living.

"It sounds wonderful." Brennan didn't eat much in the way of meat, but she did enjoy fish and from the side dishes she saw on the table, she was sure she was going to thoroughly enjoy the meal.

"And we've got some Columbia Crest wine too. We're big on eating local foods, but it certainly doesn't hurt that we've got good wines here either." Chelsea was nearly gushing now.

Booth glanced over at Bones as they sat at the table and smirked at her. As much as he wanted to get a feel for Dan as potential suspect he was sure it was going to be difficult with Chelsea around.

"Honey, I think you've outdone yourself, this looks delicious." Dan herded the the two boys into the dining room and it was clear that either the raised eyebrow from Chelsea had some lingering effects on them, or Dan had put in his two cents worth also to make sure they were on their best behavior.

Booth decided to just plow on forward as they all began dishing up their food. "So Dan, what do you do for a living?"

The other man offered a glass of wine across the table as he answered. "I'm in charge of the maintenance at all of the schools in town. Been doing that for quite a while, worked my way up and it just seemed to work out pretty well for me." He poured another glass and offered it to Kat. "I understand you two are on some sort of sabbatical to try and start a family or something."


	22. Chapter 22

The salmon was beautifully cooked and the wine was great. Conversation seemed to flow over dinner, even as two young boys squirmed in their seats at such boring grownup talk. Chelsea had only need to direct a raised eyebrow in their direction and they seemed to settle right down. Dan detailed how he had painstakingly restored the house in the midst of working full time, taking the boys to little league and soccer practice, and trying to mentor some of the older boys in the community. From all appearances, they seemed to be the all American family and Dan seemed to be the all American dad – the kind of guy that women wished was their husband. Nearly perfect, but Booth's gut was telling him that there was more under the surface waiting to be chipped away at. No one was perfect and he was going to find out what Dan Warren didn't want anyone to find out.

As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself in the form of an after dinner 'game' of football out in the front yard, really it was more like two boys scrambling to chase down the easily lobbed passes by the two men. The football wobbled a bit in the air as Cooper threw it back to his dad. He was just trying to get a handle on playing football and he smiled as their new neighbor Drew threw him an easy one.

"You see your boy much?" Dan queried Drew as they continued tossing the ball back and forth with the boys. The topic of children had come up at dinner when the new couple had explained the sabbatical and wanting a child of their own. The news that Drew had a son back in Virginia had caused both of his boys ears to perk up.

"As much as I can." Booth smiled again at the thought of Parker and he wondered what his son would say about the fact that Bones was now his girlfriend. "Didn't start out that way. His mom and I have an understanding now and she's pretty good about making sure I get time with him." He was glad that he and Becks had finally gotten to some semblance of normal and that Parker didn't have to worry that his parents couldn't at least be friends.

"Being away for a year probably complicates it." Dan tossed the ball again and snickered a little as Carter pushed Cooper out of the way to catch the ball.

Booths' brow furrowed – he already knew what it was like to be away from Parker for a long time and he didn't like it at all. "Yeah, it certainly does, but we plan on having him out for a visit soon." He had to remind himself that he was undercover and that although his feelings were genuine, he couldn't let his guard down around someone he was trying to feel out as a potential suspect. Soon enough he'd be back home and the first thing he planned to do was take Parker out to play catch just like he was doing with Dan's boys now.

"You'll have to bring him by. I bet Carter and Cooper would have a great time with him." Dan's estimation of Drew was that he was an easy going likable guy. "Wouldn't mind if I had more kids."

Booth glanced over as he tossed the ball back to somewhere between the two boys. "Chelsea not open to that?" Now this was an angle that could work – a little male bonding while Bones was inside trying to connect with Chelsea. He only hoped that she didn't slip too far into her squinty-speak and leave the woman completely befuddled.

"It's not that. It's a bit complicated." He glanced over at the boys and then at Drew as if he was trying to come to some sort of conclusion.

"Women are complicated." Booth let out an amused chuckle as if his comment was the understatement of the century. Bones was evidence of that. It had taken them nearly seven years to get their act together. He was just grateful that they had finally gotten it together, because in retrospect everything that they had gone through that had led up to them being a them was infinitely worth it.

Dan seemed to have reached his conclusion and he plowed ahead with a look of determination on his face. "She's just not thrilled that she found out recently that I cheated on her when she was pregnant with our oldest. Nothing like getting a little religion to make you start coming clean about your sordid past." He picked up the football that wobbled to his feet and threw a nice toss towards the boys.

"Another kid?" Booth was going to run with this line of conversation as long as Dan wanted to go there, even if it meant he had to listen to some guy trying to convince him to go to church, something he already did regularly.

Dan's words came out in a hushed tone so that the boys couldn't hear what he was saying. "Yeah, it's a little girl and it's beyond complicated. The other woman was married at the time. She passed away when the little girl was young. I didn't even know she was mine until a friend of Chelsea's came across some letters from her husband's dead wife in a box up in the attic." Dan considered that if he'd just remained faithful like he should have, a lot of things wouldn't be so complicated.

"So he knows his daughter isn't his." This was definitely getting interesting and Booth's gut seemed to be screaming that this was some seriously key information.

"Yeah, and he wasn't exactly thrilled about it either. Told me that I had ruined his life and that he was blaming me for his family falling apart." Dan tossed the football back out to the boys. "Boys, I'm going to go show Drew our garden, why don't you keep playing until your mom calls you in."

"Okay, dad!" A simultaneous yell came from the other side of the yard as they started wrestling over who was going to get possession of the ball.

Booth wanted to read into what Dan was saying, somehow hoping that it was all related to Emma Woods, but without the man coming out and saying it, he really couldn't be sure. Maybe this was one of the tenants of some new twelve-step group to come clean about your past. He continued to watch the nonverbal cues that were rolling off of Dan as they walked toward the backyard and the garden he was supposed to be showing him.

Out of earshot of the boys, Dan glanced over at Drew again. "Maybe I'm wrong here, but I get the feeling that maybe you and Kat aren't who you say you are." Even in the privacy of the backyard, Dan seemed to use a hushed tone.

"I don't know what you mean." Booth wasn't sure where this was going and he quickly tried to assess whether or not he had said or done something to blow his cover.

"Either your wife is a dead ringer for my favorite crime novelist Temperance Brennan, or you're her FBI partner and you two are under cover." Dan had one eyebrow raised as if he was waiting for Drew to confirm or deny his hunch. When his new acquaintance didn't say anything he took that as a cue that he needed to give up a little bit more information. "Eric Woods isn't Emma's real father, she's my daughter. I'm telling you this because if you're who I think you are, you need to know that. You also need to know that Eric's alibi might not be so stable. He was cheating on Katie with someone, I don't know who. My wife saw his SUV parked at some motel in the next town over, so he might have technically been out of town at the time Emma disappeared but not far enough out of town to be in the clear."

Booth wasn't about to blow his cover quite yet. "And why do you think that I need to know that?"

Dan chuckled, he'd read enough crime novels and watched enough forensic shows on TV to know that an undercover guy was never going to let you know he knew you were onto him. "Because if you're who I think you really are, that's why you're in town and there isn't anyone here that is going to be able to tell you what I just told you except for me."

Before Booth could get a word out of his mouth, Chelsea popped her head out the door and waved. "We've got pie for dessert! Kat said it's your favorite, Drew."

"She's right about that." A smile spread across Booth's face as he considered how much he really did love pie.

"We'll be right in, hon." Dan smiled at his wife until she popped back into the house, then glanced over at Drew. "My wife thought your wife looked like Temperance Brennan, but I told her she was seeing things." He just wanted this man to know that the information he was sharing could be trusted.

Booth mulled it over and was already putting together a list of things he needed to do and people he needed to call with this enormous revelation as he followed Dan into the house. "Kat gets that a lot."


	23. Chapter 23

"So do you think our cover is blown?" Brennan looked genuinely concerned as she glanced over at Booth who was pulling the Subaru away from the curb in front of the Warren's home. The fact that Dan Warren had recognized her from the back of one of her books made her wonder if anyone else in Sterling had too. Their ability to blend in with the rest of the town was severely compromised if it was known that she was not Kat Graham archaeology professor on a year long sabbatical, but instead Dr. Temperance Brennan, world renowned forensic anthropologist and New York Times best selling author apparently not so undercover with her FBI partner.

"I'm not sure whether it is to be quite honest with you." Booth let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "If he was going to expose us, I would think that he would have told Chelsea that he thought you were you too. Instead, he told her that she was just seeing things. He seemed to be more interested in finding out what happened to Emma, otherwise why would he tell me what he told me?" He was still trying to decide whether Dan was on the up and up or if he was just doing a really good job of conning him.

"But he admitted to fathering Emma?" Her face pinched together as she thought about the implications of it. "I would think he'd want to keep that kind of information to himself unless he was trying to create some sort of plausible connection between the two of you. He does have similar facial markers, however the pictures I've seen of Eric Woods do too. How can we be sure that he's telling the truth without doing a DNA comparison?"

"We can't. We just have to check as much of his story out as we can without arousing suspicion. First thing we need to find out was whether Eric Woods was in the next town over or as far out of town as he first claimed." Given the marital issues that they knew Katie and Eric Woods were having, it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that there was reason to wonder if one of them was cheating on the other. At the moment his money was Eric being the cheater. Well that is if the story about the motel in the next town over turned out to be true.

"How are we going to do that?" Surely they couldn't do what they would usually do and go question him directly. She glanced at Booth to see if he had a plan.

"We have someone cross check his credit card records with his cell phone records. Someone else might have used his card to help him with his alibi, but the cell phone doesn't lie." They were the best and he was sure as hell not going to let a suspect get the best of him and Bones. "At least I hope it doesn't."

"Cell phones can't actually form thoughts to either lie or tell the truth, they're electronic devices." Her words trailed off as she picked up on his meaning from the amused look he gave her. "Ah, you're using a figure of speech." She smiled proudly.

"And while we're at it, I'm going to have someone dig a little deeper into Dan and Chelsea Warren's past too. He seems like a good guy, but I'm not going to take a chance that I could be wrong." He wanted to trust his gut, but he also wanted to make sure it lined up with the facts. For all he knew, the Warrens and the Woods' were all in on whatever this was together. The one thing in Dan Warren's story that didn't ring quite true to Booth was how quickly Eric Woods seemed to believe that Emma wasn't his. He made a mental note to poke around and see what he could find out about Emma's deceased mother as well.

"You're usually very good at reading people." She wondered if he was suddenly doubting himself since they had found out that Dan Warren knew that they were undercover.

"Well a lot of agents have worked this case and they haven't gotten very far, or they haven't really tried which I find hard to believe. There's still a little girl missing and I would just feel better knowing that I hadn't left any stone unturned." If Parker had been missing he certainly wouldn't have rested until he'd found him. So much time had gone by that he knew that the hope of finding Emma alive was remote at best.

"Have you talked to Parker today?" She was sure he hadn't, what with all of the time they had spent doing as he phrased 'the naked horizontal mambo'. The nickname hadn't been entirely accurate – they hadn't been horizontal the entire time.

"No, I haven't." He glanced over at her and smiled warmly, all of his worry about their cover potentially being blow fading into the background for the moment. "I think I'll get up early to talk to him. I'm pretty sure that Becks wouldn't be thrilled with being woken up this late."

"She'd probably be more understanding than you give her credit for. You said she didn't seem to have a problem with it when you called from Afghanistan." She silently berated herself for not taking liberties with that satellite phone herself to keep in touch with him, if she had maybe they could have skipped right over the emotional turmoil of the last several months and gotten to where they were now much sooner.

"That was different. I was in a combat zone and there was a significant time difference." Although she had a valid point, it was probably better that he wait until morning. That way he could have a nice long chat with Parker that wasn't hurried of half asleep.

"That is logical." She reached over and let her hand rest on his thigh and gave him a soulful look as she seemed to gather her thoughts before speaking again. "I'm sorry that you're away from your son again. If a child were to ever happen to result from a statistical failure of whatever birth control we're using, I just want you to know that I would make sure that you were able to see him or her as much as you want if you change your mind about this thirty or forty years." She hoped that he wouldn't change his mind, that this big leap of faith that she had taken in these feelings she shared with him would be as long lasting as he seemed to think that they could be. Having a family under those circumstance was something that she had a tiny glimmer of hope could actually happen.

If he hadn't already been pulling into the driveway to park he was sure he would have driven off the road. He managed to turn the car off and set the brake before he turned towards her, his hands coming up to frame her face. "Do you know that I love you, Bones?" He leaned in and softly kissed her, not even waiting for her to answer.


	24. Chapter 24

Booth wasn't sure he wanted to come up for air. What had started out with an impulsive, but very sincere declaration of love for Bones had turned into a rather hot and heavy make out session in the Subaru. If it hadn't been for the sexy forensic anthropologist sprawled out against him, he might have felt slightly claustrophobic at being hemmed in by the seat, the door, and the steering wheel. Now if he could just get her a little closer, all of this would be perfect.

"Beeeeeeeeeeepp" The sound jolted them apart, both of them panting heavily. Apparently, that last little move had been enough to jam Booth's elbow against the horn.

Brennan looked sexy and mussed up and she had a sultry grin on her face. "We generated enough heat to sufficiently fog up the windows." She seemed very pleased about it too.

"Sufficiently for what?" He wanted nothing more than to just pick up where they left off, but given how close the horn apparently was to his elbow it was probably a good idea if they went inside instead unless they wanted to alert the entire neighborhood, starting with Paige, that they lacked the self control to even get inside the house.

She leaned towards him, her eyes flashing a mischievous glint. "Anything we want." She had a few ideas that she was sure he in particular would be more than happy about.

He blinked at her. "We should go inside, don't you think?" It was going to be hell to tear himself away from her, especially with the way she looked right now, but they had some phone calls to make so they could keep the investigation going along and then maybe they could think about continuing this.

She had always thought that Booth was prudish about sex, but that was until she had gained firsthand knowledge of his prowess in the bedroom. Now she realized that he was private, but most definitely not prudish. "That is an excellent idea."

He smoothed his hair down and then smirked at her. "Uh, Bones, I think you might want to button your blouse first." Wow, they really had gotten a little out of hand.

She cleared her throat and gave him a glance of her own as she started to refasten the buttons on her blouse. "You might want to check your zipper then." She wondered how they were going to manage future stakeouts if this was what happened when he simply told her he loved her. She smiled.

"Right." He quickly zipped up and pulled the keys from the ignition. He had no sooner opened the door and pulled himself out of the car than he nearly jumped out of his skin as he noticed a baseball bat wielding, nightgown wearing Paige inching towards them stealthily. Booth held his hands up and rolled his eyes. "Paige, it's just us."

"Hi, Paige." Brennan waved at the neighbor.

Paige quickly lowered the bat and squinted to be sure her eyes and ears were synchronized. She let out a chuckle as she realized what was really going on. "And here I thought you and the missus were in some kind of trouble."

"Haven't you ever heard of calling 9-1-1?" Booth was genuinely concerned that she might just rush herself into trouble like a bat out of Hell if she wasn't careful, sort of like someone else he knew.

"Wanted to make sure it was an actual emergency first." Paige shrugged her shoulders.

"No emergency here." Brennan smiled slyly. "Drew and I were just…"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Booth interrupted her with a very loud whisper. "She does _not_ need to know what we were _just_ doing." He was completely mortified that Bones was just going to come right out and spell it out in very vivid detail what they were just doing.

"Making out like a couple of lovesick teenagers." Paige raised her eyebrow at both of them as they looked at her in surprise. "What? I had six kids. Don't think I don't recognize the signs when I see them. Besides, you'd have to have done some awfully heavy breathing to get the windows so fogged up." There was a genuine twinkle of amusement in her eyes as she gestured towards their house before she turned towards her own. "Now go on inside and enjoy your night."

"Uh, thanks, Paige." Booth felt almost as if he'd been called on the carpet by a nun for some reason.

"Have a nice night yourself." Brennan smiled as she came to stand next to Booth, letting her fingers lace with his.

Paige stopped and glanced back. "And forget about those condoms, a baby is never a bad thing for people who are as in love as you two are." With that she waltzed back over to her house, twirling the baseball bat like a majorette in a fourth of July parade.

Booth and Brennan didn't say a word as they walked hand in hand to the door of the house. The only tell that either of them were even remotely nervous was the way he seemed to fumble with the keys just a little. But as they entered the house and shut the door behind them, flicking on the light, they stood there and looked at each other.

Brennan smiled. "You told me that you loved me." His confession had caused swirls of emotion to well up inside of her and she took a step towards him wondering how she could have ever pushed him away, why she needed the space that Maluku afforded, and how she had almost lost him.

"I _do_ love you." His heart thudded in his chest. He was never more sure of anything in his life. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was hopelessly in love with Temperance Brennan.

She took another step towards him. "And I want you to know that although I still find these feelings completely irrational, I have come to the conclusion that I love you too." She couldn't quantify them, she couldn't compartmentalize them or reason them away and so instead, she had chosen to embrace them.

"Ah, Hell, at this rate we're never going to solve this case." At the moment he didn't really seem all that upset about it, he was more interested in celebrating the words that had just tumbled freely out of his partner's mouth than he was about dealing with the reason they were there in the first place. It took all the self control in the world to not just reach out and crush her to him. Instead, he clenched his fists and forced himself to smile at a very confused looking Bones. "I want more than anything to rip your clothes off right now and have my way with you against the front door because of what you just said, but unfortunately we have to make some progress on this case or we're never going to solve it."

Her eyes flashed with fire as a sexy smirk flitted across her face. "You are a very _sexy_ FBI agent."

His words came out in a whine. "Bones, you're killing me here."

"I haven't even touched you. I'm not sure how you have come to the conclusion that I am killing you." She knew exactly what he meant and her smirk widened.

He simply raised an eyebrow at her. "Now I'm going to go and call Agent Green, why don't you call the squints and then when we're done sharing all that we know with them, I'll meet you in the bedroom because I want you to know just _how_ happy I am that you love me."

"Should I assume that attire is optional?" She was being beyond flirty with him, but she couldn't help herself.

"_Very_ optional." He winked.

"And should I assume that the rule applies to you as well?" Brennan was now of the opinion that his 'Cocky' belt buckle looked best when it was on the floor.

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, the rule applies to me as well. Nakedness will abound in the bedroom and we'll have wild crazy sex." He looked at her expectantly as if he was waiting for her to second the motion and take a formal vote on the matter.

"Slow and gentle would be nice too." Her smile softened and then in the next instant, she turned on her heels, cell phone in hand ready to relay some critical information to the squints back at the lab.

Booth muttered under his breath even as the smile on his face widened. "You're really gonna kill me here, Bones." He had to admit that he was loving every minute of it.


	25. Chapter 25

Talking to Agent Green took far longer than Booth had planned. Once he began to fill him in on what Dan Warren had shared with him, they began comparing notes on things that to the initial investigators in the case had seemed insignificant, but now they seemed to hold far more meaning. A full-scale investigation into Eric Woods' alibi was being launched as they spoke, as well as compiling background information on his deceased wife Mallory, her family, and both of the Warrens. A new picture of who had motive, means, and opportunity to kidnap and either kill or hide Emma Woods had emerged and they needed to make sure they followed every lead.

"If his story holds up, he'd probably volunteer to come in for a polygraph." Booth's opinion of Dan Warren was that if he was as much of a stand up guy as he seemed to be that he would do whatever it took to help them solve this case. Of course then there was the concern about their cover being blown and as much as he hoped that Dan's 'come to Jesus' experience was honest and true, he needed to remain objective and at least a little skeptical to make sure that he and Bones remained safe.

"_We'll backburner that idea until we've checked out Eric Woods' alibi. I don't want to confirm to Dan Warren that you're FBI unless it's absolutely necessary."_ Agent Green let out a yawn. _"And by the way, the nephew out at the Woods' place is clean – no priors, both of his parents are in the Army doing a tour so he's probably just mad at the world."_

"I'm going to assume that Katie Woods has been extensively investigated." As the last one to have seen Emma before she disappeared, she had been the focal point of the investigation up until now.

"_Yeah, and so far other than the cloak and dagger routine between her and her friends, we haven't turned up anything that concretely connects her to the girl's disappearance."_ Green continued. _"I'll let you know what we turn up when you check in tomorrow."_

"Yeah, sounds good." Booth wrapped up the call and let out a sigh as he considered just how long he'd been on the phone and how long it had been since he'd heard any sort of noise out of his partner. He pocketed his cell phone and walked out of the small office, clicking the light off as he went. The only other light on in the house was coming from the bedroom and he smiled as he made his way down the hall. He only hoped that Bones was still up for a little naked fun to celebrate her confession that she loved him too.

She was curled up in the bed, blankets gathered up under her chin, sleeping peacefully.

Booth quickly shucked his clothes off down to his t-shirt and boxers, turned off the light and slipped into the bed next to her, the weight of him sinking into the mattress making her stir just a little bit. He knew that no matter how disappointed he might be that they couldn't celebrate before taking care of work, that this was the way a long-term relationship between them was probably going to play out. One or the other of them was always going to have something to do with work that was going to come first. Of all the people he knew, she was probably the only one who would really understand. He closed his eyes and smiled.

"You're wearing clothes." Brennan knew he had finally come to bed and she didn't even bother to open her eyes as she snuggled closer to him. She wanted to ask him if he'd learned anything new about the case, but at the moment she was more interested in just laying there with him all snug and cozy.

"So are you." He felt only a little bad that he'd woken her up. "You were sleeping." His arm easily slipped around her.

"No, not sleeping, just resting my eyes." It wasn't true at all, she had dozed off, but she wasn't going to admit it.

"Liar." He let out a soft chuckle, letting his fingers smooth back her hair so he could press a kiss to her forehead. "It's late, maybe we should save the mind-blowing sex for after we've had some shut eye." Not that he wasn't up for blowing her mind right then and there, but they worked long enough hours as it was and he was all for encouraging Bones to get a little extra sleep.

"My eyes are already shut, and it's actually impossible to have your mind blow up from having sexual intercourse, unless of course you are shot in the head in the course of intercourse." She smirked in the dark knowing he would tell her that she was being too literal.

"Look who knows so much." He dipped his head and pressed his lips against hers.

She mumbled against his mouth. "I do know quite a bit. I am a genius after all."

He laughed and broke off the kiss. Leave it to Bones to run her IQ up the proverbial flag pole. "You know what _I_ know?" He was pretty damn smart himself, even she had admitted it to him a time or two.

"You know a lot of things." She wasn't sure if he wanted her to be specific and provide a list or if it was just one of those rhetorical questions.

"What I know is that _I_ love you." He punctuated his confession with a kiss. "And I know that _you_ love me." Another kiss. "And do you know what _that_ means?"

"That you would like to attempt to blow up my mind with sexual intercourse?" As much as she wanted him, she was perfectly content to just lay together snuggled closely like this in the darkness.

"Maybe later." His smile was evident in his voice. "What that means is I _still_ know. I'm _that_ guy, Bones. I knew _then_ and I know it _now_. I may have doubted myself when you weren't ready on those steps before we went off to different parts of the world. But _you_ are the woman I want to be with. I don't want anyone else. Ever." He only hoped that the intensity of his claim wouldn't spook her the way she had been when he'd first confessed that they could be one of those thirty, forty, or fifty year couples.

"While that is highly irrational, given the type of work that we do and all of the associated dangers, I want to believe that we could be together for a very long time." Brennan hoped that she didn't sound doubtful, she had jumped into this new facet of their relationship with all of her brain and as much heart as she could muster.

"I know that we'll be together for a very, _very_ long time." The fact that she had brought up the idea of a child earlier, even if it was in a very Bonesy response to the feelings he had about being separated from Parker, it made him believe that she had put all of herself into this thing between them and that she was in it for the long haul. That thought made him beyond happy.

"I really want that, Booth." Her voice was tinged with doubt. "I do. I hope that we can have that. I hope that circumstances don't steal that from us because I'm not sure I could bear it."

"Lots of people get happy endings, Bones." Booth pulled her a little closer.

"I don't want just a happy ending, I want a meaningful life filled with happy moments, with the end as far off into the future as possible." It was perfectly rational that there should be no reason for them to rush to get to the end. To be at the end would imply that they were finished, and she most certainly wasn't ready for that.

He let out a soft chuckle and kissed her forehead. "I want that too, Bones, I want that too."

She smiled, satisfied. "Good."


	26. Chapter 26

Seeley Booth would have preferred to be woken up by the sexy scientist sharing his bed, but the chirp of his phone coming from the pocket of his jeans on the floor beat her to it. He let out a grunt as he fished around for it before it stopped chirping and he barked into the phone. "Booth." He was not happy about being woken up and he hoped that whoever was on the other end of the line knew it.

"Good morning, Agent Studly." The please little smirk on Angela Montenegro-Hodgins' face was evident in her tone as her imagination filled in the blanks with considerable embellishment. "Did you sleep well?" Perhaps if his defenses were down he'd volunteer information that had been sadly lacking when she'd last talked to Brennan.

"Angela, this had better be good." He was in no mood to be interrogated, that was his specialty and he didn't enjoy being on the receiving end of it, especially when it had nothing at all to do with a case. He knew that Angela was fishing, but he wasn't biting.

"Well someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Angela's quip landed into silence so she went fishing. "Or maybe you haven't gotten up yet." Still meeting silence, she let out a resigned sigh that no one wanted to play twenty questions. "Fine, look we got results back on Eric Woods' phone records, and you were right, he made a few calls from the next town over near the timeframe that Emma disappeared. Given the distance between the two towns, he could have easily gone back and gotten Emma."

"The question is then what the hell did he do with her?" As a father himself, he could never imagine hurting a child, let alone his own child, even if he'd just found out that that child wasn't biologically his after eight years.

"Well we've also cross referenced his incoming and outgoing calls with numbers that might have also been in the area around the same time frame and we found a match." Angela hoped that the information would be significant to the case.

"So he may have had help then." Booth hoped that this mystery person didn't belong to some disposable phone. While those had become easier to trace, they weren't foolproof. His mind immediately went to Katie Woods and her Yard Share friends who had been under suspicion from the beginning. "Was it Katie Woods?"

"Who is on the phone?" Brennan mumbled sleepily remembering that Booth had intended to get up early to call Parker, but from the tone of his voice he didn't think that was who was on the other end of the line.

"No, but it is a freakishly weird twist though." Angela's ears were on hypersonic alert and she was sure that she'd heard Brennan in the background and she was ready to pounce on the revelation of the century.

"What sort of twist?" He was intrigued but running out of patience and he attempted to cover the phone as he whispered a bit too loudly to Bones. "Angela."

"Put Brennan on the phone, Booth." The tone in her voice was victorious, she knew that despite all of the hazy details that Bren had given her earlier that something big was going on between these two and she didn't want to wait until they got back to DC to find out exactly what it was. If she was a betting woman, she would guess that her wildest dreams for the two of them had finally come true.

"What is the twist, Angela?" His patience was wearing thin. She had woken him up and now he was sure she wanted to try her interrogation skills on Bones. He nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt a hand sliding down his chest and a pair of lips pressing against his neck. Apparently Bones was trying to kill him too.

"Put Brennan on the phone." She had the upper hand in the situation and she knew that he knew it. Of course, not telling him was probably some sort of obstruction of justice, but there wasn't much he was going to do about it several thousand miles away.

"The twist, Angela, and then maybe I'll let you talk to Bones." He was tempted to just hang up the phone, especially since Bones was making it abundantly clear that she had no intention of going back to sleep. However, he knew that if he just hung up on her it was going to take a Herculean effort to get the information about the case out of her until either he or Bones spilled about what they were up to.

"Fine." Angela huffed out a breath. "The cell phone number belongs to a Sam Kensington." Was it so hard for one of them to just tell her that they had finally woken up to the reality that everyone else knew they had been their destiny for years.

"And how is that a twist?" He knew it was important, but his mind was a little foggy at the moment, what with the hand of a certain sexy scientist dipping south of his waistband. His mind was most definitely having difficulty focusing on the details of the case that he needed Angela to tell him.

"Sam and Sarah Kensington are Mallory Woods parents." Now that Angela had delivered the information, she wanted some of her own. Her toe tapped impatiently of its own accord.

"Emma's grandparents." This was definitely a plot that was getting thicker and thicker and he knew that this little tidbit of information was a glimmer of hope that had been sadly missing during the entire investigation. He bit his lip and shot a glare at Bones who really didn't seem to care that he was on the phone and what she was doing was very, very distracting.

"Yes." Now that Angela had gotten to the professional reason for her call, she was onto her personal reason for calling. "Now put Bren on the phone."

Booth didn't say a word he just glanced over at Bones who had finally decided to keep her hands to herself for the moment and handed her the phone.

"Hi, Angela." She let out a yawn and smiled at Booth, intent on getting right back to what she had been doing as soon as she got Angela off the phone. It was only five o'clock in the morning on the west coast and so she reasoned that she and Booth had at least an hour or two until they could do much with whatever Angela had told them anyway.

"So, how are things going with Agent Studly?" Angela wanted details and she wanted them now. Enough of this smoke and mirrors routine that these two were tag teaming her with. She knew enough details to know that something had changed, but Bren couldn't evade her forever.

Without missing a beat, Brennan smirked at Booth. "Ang, as much as I'd like to talk to you right now, Booth and I have previously scheduled mind blowing sex that we need to get to so I'll talk to you later." She clicked off the call and handed the phone back to Booth who gaped at her like a fish before he tossed the phone onto the floor and then pinned her to the mattress before he devoured her mouth with a searing kiss.


	27. Chapter 27

Booth's shirt went flying across the room, landing unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. He let out an amused laugh at the way his sexy scientist had been so quick to launch his shirt after she had finally wrestled the offending article of clothing off of him. "Anxious much, Bones?"

"And you're not." She smirked at him letting her arms wrap around his torso as his hand slid up the front of her shirt. Her eyes fluttered shut as his hand found purchase. "You have very talented fingers." What was it about this man that rendered her intelligence to that of the average person when she tried to speak?

"When it comes to you, I think I'll always be anxious." He wanted her badly, but he planned to take his time to ensure that he not only blew her mind, but he rocked her world until she was babbling incoherently. A long slow kiss stopped any kind of squinty answer she might have come up with, but it also seemed to get in the way of his efforts to relieve her of her shirt.

"There is a far more logical way we could resolve this problem." She mumbled against his mouth, wishing that she'd just gone to bed without clothes because it would have been far more convenient for what she had in mind. It took a bit more fumbling and then her shirt managed to join his on the floor.

Booth whispered against her mouth. "You feel so good naked." His ability to form a coherent thought was already beginning to short circuit. All he seemed to be able to focus on was the way her soft curves felt beneath his hands and the way she felt against him. Regardless of the fact that they'd already done this several times, he was sure that he was never going to find making love to Bones old or boring.

"Technically, we're not completely naked." To emphasize her point, she tugged at the waistband of his boxers. It was a technicality that she hoped to correct as soon as possible and all indications pointed to him being completely amenable to the correction.

"Technical, schmechnical." He slid his hand down her ass, slipping cotton down as he went. He had admired her backside very often over the course of knowing her and now that he could touch it, touch her, he found that a simple sashay of her hips could drive him wild. Of course, he'd recently learned that he drove her wild too and so he let his hands roam freely, softly caressing.

"Schmechnical is not actually a word." She really didn't care, especially given how talented his fingers were and the way he was making her feel just then. As far as she was concerned, he could make up as many fake words as he wanted if he would make sure that his fingers could just keep doing that.

"Who cares." He silenced her with another kiss.

* * *

It was several hours later when the chirp of a phone woke Booth again. This time though he wasn't feeling quite so grouchy, what with the naked forensic anthropologist snuggled against him under the covers. The smile on his face was almost audible as he answered the phone. "Booth."

Brennan blinked her eyes open and watched Booth as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. She wasn't feeling quite as boneless as she had right before she'd fallen asleep in his arms and she couldn't help but smile as she thought about just what had left her in that state.

"Thanks." He wasn't on the line long before he clicked off and noticed that she was awake. He slipped the phone onto the table next to the bed and smiled at her. "They've tracked down an eyewitness that may have seen Emma in the eastern part of the state within hours of when she was reported missing."

She propped herself up on her elbow. "You think she could be alive?" As much as she was confident that her skills as a forensic anthropologist were unparalleled and that she would no doubt have been able to identify remains if they'd come across evidence of some, finding a live person was always preferable.

"Maybe." Booth reached over and slipped his fingers into her hair, leaning in and softly kissing her before continuing. "The grandparents apparently live in a really remote location which is accessible only by boat or float plane and there is no phone or internet service. She's spent the last several summers with them and it's entirely possible that since they don't have internet or television that they might not even know that Emma is supposed to be missing." Not likely, but very possible.

"We should get up and go check." She wanted to make progress on this case. If there was a chance that Emma Woods might be alive, time was of the essence.

"We're not going anywhere, Bones." He leaned in and kissed her again. "Agent Green has a team going in. They're also going to take Eric Woods into custody to see if they can get him to tell them what the hell he's thinking."

"Because we're still undercover." Her tone was almost petulant.

"Yeah, because if she's not there, if he won't crack, we've got to find another angle." He could tell that she was disappointed.

She let out a sigh. "I like it when we're the ones who solve the case and get to arrest the bad guys." There was something very satisfying about bringing closure to a case and to people's lives.

"Me too, but without us, they wouldn't have gotten the intel from Dan Warren and they'd still be thinking that Katie Woods and not Eric is the prime suspect." He pulled her close and let out a sigh.

Brennan smirked at him. "I feel as if the most progress we've made during this case is the progress we've made between you and I." And what progress that had been. They had taken leaps and bounds of progress and she had never been so content in her life.

His grin lit up the room. "You and I _are_ the biggest case we've ever solved."

She leaned in and softly kissed Booth. "Yes, we are, aren't we." She let out a sigh. "But right now, I think we need to do whatever we can go help them find Emma." Undercover or not, she was sure that there was more that they could be doing than lingering together in bed.

There was a mischievous twinkle in Booth's eyes. "We will. But it might not be what you think."


	28. Chapter 28

"How is sitting in a coffee shop helping us solve the case." Brennan whispered loudly and leaned towards Booth.

"People watching, dear, people watching." He still had that mischievous glint in his eye and he took a sip from his cup of coffee before he made his confession. "Green said that Katie Woods gets her coffee here every morning and he wants us to distract her while they go in and take Eric into custody."

"Ah." Her tone was decidedly conspiratorial as she finally took a sip of her own coffee. "So we're on a stake out of sorts then."

"Something like that." Booth snickered softly at her reaction.

"So we're a happy newlywed couple out for some morning coffee." It was as if she was trying to get herself into character for the event.

"Hey, we _are_ a happy couple out for some morning coffee." To emphasize his point, he leaned over and softly kissed her. "See, happy." He was so happy that an expression he was sure that he'd learned from Pops seemed like the best description, he really was over the moon about Bones.

She smiled softly and seemed content. "How was your conversation with Parker?" She knew that he'd spent some time on the phone when she had hopped into the shower to get ready for the day and to put a little space between them so they wouldn't end up right back in the bed.

"It was good. He asked about you." He knew that once he spilled the beans to Parker that Bones was going to be in their lives for a good long while, maybe even forever, that he was going to be thrilled. He hadn't wanted to do that on the phone though, better to save it for when he was home and he could see the expression on Parker's face.

"What did he ask?" Because if he had questions about bones or bone things then she was sure that she could be very helpful. Or if it wasn't about bones, surely one of the other squints would be able to weigh in on their area of expertise and answer any questions he might have.

"He wanted to know how you were and if you were having fun." Booth nearly split his face with an amused grin. If Parker only knew how much fun they were having, he would gross out and pull a face.

"I am definitely having fun, but I'm not sure you would find what I am finding fun appropriate to tell Parker about." She knew for sure now that Booth was not a prude, but he was very sensitive about what topics he shared with his son and she was certain that he would not want to discuss the topic of sexual relations with Parker.

He had anticipated that she was most likely going to say something that might make him snort coffee out his nose, so he'd waited to take a sip "No, I'm sure I wouldn't, but for the record, I'm having fun too." He didn't want her to have any doubts about just how much he was enjoying this new phase in their relationship.

"I would also find it fun to solve the case." She got a thrill and satisfaction out of solving the puzzle that a crime was and making sure that whomever committed the crime was arrested and put behind bars. She and Booth were an exceptional team in that regard.

He lowered his voice and gestured his eyes towards the doorway. "Well we might just get our chance." He casually sipped his coffee and waited until Bones tracked with what he was subtly trying to let her in on.

As luck would have it, Katie Woods noticed them and smiled as she approached their table. "Hey, nice running into you two."

"Would you like to join us?" Brennan smiled genuinely and Booth grabbed an empty chair from a neighboring table to make it clear that she was truly welcome.

"That would be great. Let me just grab a latte and I'll be right back." Katie smiled and then made her way up to the counter to put her order in with the barista.

"Ah, everything is going according to plan." Brennan looked very pleased, nearly smug actually as she leaned in conspiratorially.

"There is no plan." Booth hissed softly. "Just be yourself, you're trying too hard." He could recall another instance of Bones' very bad acting skills that had gotten them blown up and nearly killed when they were working the Gormogon case.

"I thought I was being Kat." She really didn't think that Booth meant that they were to blow their cover, but she wasn't completely sure.

"You _are_ Kat, just act natural, like you have been the whole time." He leaned in and kissed her to shut her up as he noticed that Katie was picking her order up from the counter.

Katie didn't take long before she was back at the table, slipping into a chair next to Kat. "I see you've found the best coffee shop in town."

"That's what we hear." Booth was enjoying the coffee, but he wasn't sure it was the best he'd ever had.

"I am pleased that they use fair trade, organic, shade-grown beans." Brennan was all for supporting causes that helped people and the environment.

"Yes, they pride themselves on being socially and environmentally conscious." She took a long sip of her latte and then glanced at the pair she was sharing the table with. "Are you getting acquainted with the town?"

"Yes, we are." Brennan glanced over at Booth and smiled. "Last night we had dinner with Chelsea and Dan Warren. They seem like a very nice couple."

"Chelsea is a good friend." Katie looked as if there was way more behind the statement than her simple words let on.

"We should have you and your family over for dinner. Shouldn't we, Drew?" Brennan reasoned that this would be the likely next logical social step for couples in a new town wanting to make new friends, even if they weren't the couple that the people in Sterling thought they were. In reality, they were a different couple, a very newly romantic couple.

Booth could tell that her mind was turning super squinty and so he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that would be great. We do like to cook."

"I'll talk to Eric and see if he'd be up for it." The expression in Katie's eyes made it clear that it was going to be a cold day in hell before Eric would be up for making small talk with strangers given what was going on in their lives.

"How is Cordelia?" Brennan wondered if the dog still had her wanderlust.

Katie let out a soft laugh. "Oh, she's fine. Trying to keep tabs on her so she doesn't run off again." Her expression saddened. "I think she really misses Emma though." A cell phone chirped in Katie's purse. "Oh, hold on a second." She pulled out the phone and flipped it open. "Hello." Her faced flickered panic. "Slow down, Jason. What was that?" As she listened the color seemed to drain out of her face. "No, I'm leaving right now."

Brennan reached across the table and touched Katie's arm with concern. "Is everything okay?"

"No, no it's not okay. My nephew Jason said that the FBI just arrested Eric." Tears pricked her eyes as she grabbed her purse and slipped out of the chair. "I have to go." She disappeared out the door of the coffee shop, her latte sitting nearly untouched on the table.


	29. Chapter 29

As they watched Katie Woods make a beeline out the door and to her car without so much as a backwards glance, Brennan looked over at Booth expectantly. "What do we do now?"

He glanced casually over his coffee cup and out the window before looking back at his partner. "We wait until she's gone and then we walk back to the house and call Green." The last thing they needed to do was run headlong after one of the key players in this case and blow their cover before it was necessary. That was one of the reasons that he had suggested that they walk the few blocks down to the coffee shop, well that and it meant that he could take a nice stroll and have a very good excuse for holding Bones' hand.

"Then what?" She took another sip of her coffee, the excitement from something actually happening in the case rolling off of her in waves.

"C'mon." He left his cup and rose from the table, leaving a couple of bills for a generous tip as he waited for Bones to take another long pull from her cup before he raised a brow at her to encourage her to hurry up.

"What? It's good coffee." The smirk flitted across her face flirtatiously as she relinquished her cup and stood up and took his hand.

They casually strode out of the coffee shop hand in hand, thankful that the house was only a few blocks down the street. As they unlocked the front door, Booth pulled out his cell phone and punched in Green's number, getting straight to the point when the other agent answered. "Where are we at?"

Brennan closed the door behind them and listened in to Booth's side of the conversation.

"Is he talking?" He shot Bones an incredulous look. "You're kidding." A laugh and another glance over at Bones. "So what do you need me and Bones to do?" There was a distinct twinkle in his eyes. "Alright, we'll be there as soon as we can." With that he ended the call and let out a whoop and pulled Bones into his arms giving her a hug.

She let out a laugh of her own. "What is it?"

His voice was strong, steady and hopeful as he spoke softly into her ear. "They think she may be alive."

She tilted her head back to look at him, her smile mirroring his. "Where do they think she is?"

"With her grandparents. Apparently they live in a place called Stehekin, which is only accessible by boat or float plane. They don't have any land lines or internet access and they don't own a television." The absurdity of the situation made him smile all that much bigger.

"So either they have no idea that Emma is missing or they are at cahoots with Eric." The wheels churning in Brennan's brain were almost audible.

He released her from his embrace and smirked. "It's in cahoots, Bones, and yes, it's very possible that they are in on it. But the lack of available technology and the fact that they only have a cell phone might just make them a couple of dupes thanks to Eric."

"So what are we going to do?" She hoped that they'd be the ones to go in and get Emma back.

"Green wants us to meet him down at the Seattle field office." He had one of those looks on his face that made it seem like they were so close to the finish line and just needed to get past one more obstacle.

"Won't that blow our cover if Katie is there?" Brennan was concerned that if this was too soon that they might not be able to get any further with the contacts they'd made in Sterling.

"Yeah, it will, but if his story checks out, I have a feeling that Green is going to want us to go with Katie over to Stehekin to get Emma." And speaking as a parent, he knew that Katie would be so relieved.

The drive into Seattle took far longer than either of them had the patience for, but any thought on their cover remaining intact was removed almost the instant they walked out of the elevator to the floor they were supposed to meet Agent Green. Katie Woods stood there waiting anxiously for some news, and as if a lightbulb went off in her head at the appearance of the couple she'd abandoned in the coffee shop just a short time before, she dissolved into tears and sat back down next to her nephew who looked visibly shaken by the whole turn of events.

The partners exchanged a glance as they approached Katie and Jason. "Katie." Brennan's voice was gentle as they approached, a bit unsure of how she was going to respond to seeing them.

Katie looked accusatorially at the couple. "You're in on this, aren't you?"

Booth let out a sigh and gave her a direct answer. "If by in on this you mean are we here to find out what happened to Emma, then yes." Cover blown, Booth, pulled out his badge to come clean. "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Doctor Temperance Brennan." He really did empathize with what the poor woman was going through, but there really was no way to avoid it. He couldn't tell her anything else until they'd met with Agent Green and got up to speed on how the rest of the interrogation had gone.

"If you're FBI, then why is Eric in custody? He would never do anything to hurt Emma. Why won't anyone tell me anything?" She wanted answers and she wanted them now, what with the personal hell that she'd been through, she felt like she deserved it. As it was, she looked shellshocked.

"What did Uncle Eric do?" Jason looked shaken, but angry at how no one seemed to want to tell them anything except to wait. He couldn't believe that the man that had taken him into his home would ever do anything to harm Emma. Eric adored Emma.

In the most diplomatic tone he could, Booth tried to answer them. "I know that you're really short on answers right now, but if you'll just be patient for a few more minutes, Doctor Brennan and I will be able to tell you a lot more." It was the best he could do for now.

"How do I know that you're just not putting us off like everyone else?" Katie needed answers, that was evident in the plea in her voice.

"You don't." Brennan decided to take the most rational approach possible. "But if Booth says that he'll have answers for you, he will." The confidence and faith in her voice seemed to reassure Katie and Jason for the moment.

"I promise we'll be back shortly and we'll have some answers for you." Booth gestured to Bones to follow him and they disappeared down the hallway to meet Agent Green.


	30. Chapter 30

_**Epilogue**_

The day was beautiful. The skies were clear and blue and the water on Lake Chelan was calm as the charter boat ferried Booth, Brennan, Katie Woods, her nephew Jason and Cordelia the dog over to the enclave of Stehekin. For the last nine weeks, Emma Woods and her grandparents had been blissfully unaware that by the rest of the country she was supposed to have been a victim of child abduction or worse. The fact that this was going to have a happy resolution was a blessing for this family, especially in the midst of the pain caused by one of its core members.

When Eric Woods found out that Dan Warren was very likely Emma's biological father, it seemed to break whatever fragile thread he was holding onto to reality with. Struggling for the last several years to keep his business afloat, the mortgage payments up to date, and trying to hide the financial peril they were in from Katie had taken an unmeasured toll on him. The thought that someone had a real argument for taking his only child away from him, even if that potential was really in his own mind, had pushed him over the edge. In the FBI interrogation room it all had come spilling out.

As for Sam and Fiona Kensington, they had never questioned Eric's claim that Katie was out of town with her yard share group at an organic farming seminar because they knew how important it was to her. And since they had kept in regular contact with Eric, they had never suspected that anything was wrong. They were completely heart sick when Booth had gotten in touch with them and explained what had happened and so he had offered to bring Katie and Jason to Stehekin for a private family reunion away from prying eyes and news cameras. For that they were all grateful knowing full well that when they returned to Sterling they were going to have to face their new reality without Eric who was facing a litany of charges, just as soon as he was released from the state mental hospital.

The boat was approaching the dock in Stehekin. The trip across the lake had taken nearly four hours. Booth was looking forward to seeing this particular reunion take place. It wasn't fair for one parent to do this to another, even if neither one of them were actually biologically responsible for the child. As far as Emma was concerned Katie was the only mother she could remember. He leaned over and whispered to Bones as he noticed Cordelia straining at her leash. "Two to one odds that the dog takes a dunk in the drink before we make it to the dock."

As if she could read Booth's mind, Cordelia broke free from her leash and leaped into the water just yards from the dock, the squeals of a little red haired girl that could only be Emma Woods urging her on. "Cordy! Cordy girl! C'mon Cordy! I missed you!"

"I don't know what that means." Brennan wasn't sure how the dog was going to dip into a drink that hadn't been offered to her. "And you shouldn't be betting, you're a recovering degenerate gambler."

"That's what I love about you Bones, always so literal." He wrapped his arms around her, professionalism be damned and he pressed a kiss to her temple. "Besides, I was right about the dog."

"I suppose that was your gut talking then." Her smirk was evident in her voice as she looked at him in amusement.

The boat eased up to the dock and before the crew could ensure that it was tied securely, both Katie and Jason had bounded off and in the midst of laughter and tears and one soaking wet dog that had taken the hard way to the dock, were reunited with Emma.

"Now there's a beautiful moment, Bones." He hugged her close and whispered huskily in her ear. "I love you. Don't ever doubt that."

"And I love you. I will love you, for as long as my body is physically capable of supporting life." She was very sincere as she leaned into him. She did love him, so much. It was a shame that it had taken so long for them to get to this point, but now that they were here, she wasn't about to let him go.

"What are we now, Star Trek? You make it sound like we're a couple of aliens." He snickered and then pressed another kiss to her forehead before he released her and they stepped onto the dock.

_**The End**_

**Author's Note:** Yes, you read that correctly we have arrived at the end of the story. I know, I was a bit surprised too. I thought it would go on for a few more chapters, but really, this last bit seemed to write itself. And because I know that many of you are wondering if there is a Booth and Bones baby in the works here. Well without going into a long winded explanation of the birds and the bees, you'll have to leave that little tidbit to your imagination. Besides, even if there was a bun in the oven, it would be way too early for them to know. Thanks for reading!


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